Interesting article about love among the geriatric set…
What are the implications for ministry here?
A digital commonplace for a Regular Guy called Charlie Pharis
Interesting article about love among the geriatric set…
What are the implications for ministry here?
Went with the lovely and gracious “Mrs. Just Charlie” to our favorite little Eye-talian place for lunch today. (I had just talked about getting back to the basics of church, and how the mission of Jesus to seek and save the lost must be our driving passion, etc.).
So we pull up to Provino’s and there they were, in all their redneck-hip-hop-wannabe glory: about four guys and a girl, all of whom appeared to be in their early 20s. Standing right outside the door, smoking, swilling Budweiser longnecks.
My first reaction was something like…
Crap! Why can’t they move it somewhere else so I can get in the door?
We went around this crew and headed in for lunch. Well, it gets better. As soon as we were seated, that whole crew came in and joined another very similar crowd at a large table across the room from us.
Another young woman joined them shortly, and it became apparent that this whole bunch was celebrating the first young woman’s birthday. (Or that they were continuing to celebrate her birthday might be more like it!)
I’d like to think that the language they were using would be offensive to the young woman (with the obligatory and very evident tramp stamp), but since she was the loudest and most obnoxious, I guess not.
Every third word from her mouth began with “f” and ended with “-kin'” and there was no “rea” in between. I had almost had all I could stand when she made this comment…
S**t! I was so f**kin’ messed up, I f**kin’ woke up with nothin’ but my f**kin’ bikini top on, and my f**kin’ bottle of Everclear was f**kin’ gone!
The rest of the table laughed and commented favorably.
And that’s when it hit me. Or I should say, that’s when He hit me. Right in the face. Hard.
My buddy, Gary Lamb, often says that most pastors who say they want to reach the unchurched really don’t want to, they just want to have cool, different ways of doing church for the already-convinced.
I know he’s right, but it hit home in a big way this afternoon over a plate of manicotti and garlic rolls.
I am not really ready to advance the Kingdom. I’m not really ready to storm the gates of hell and rescue people who are far from God. I’m good with nice, decent folks who just don’t go to church. But there were people, loved by God, created and designed by Him for a great purpose, people for whom Jesus lived and died, people being passionately pursued by God, and I couldn’t handle them. My anger and discomfort soon turned to great shame and I wept over my last bit of manicotti. Sitting right there in the restaurant, I wept over people far from God, and over my lack of passion for them.
God, help me see those who are far from You as You see them. Give me patience for the things I don’t like so I can have a passion for those You love. Help me be ready next time…
Here are some things I bet you pastor/preacher types out there weren’t aware of, until John Killinger said so, in a presentation today in Memphis…
Wow.
Guess we all need to be “re-evaluating” our stance in light of this “advanced” understanding of the gospel and its ramifications.
Not!
“…raise your hand…”
Of all the idiotic things a person could say in response to the President’s tough but necessary words in Israel’s Knesset! Senator Obama, I’d be pretty careful about claiming to be the target of those remarks!
But then again, a good defense might be…”I’m no more of an appeaser than SHE is! Nyah-nyah!
Man! With THIS bunch as the choices….aw, never mind!
OK, so I took the Twitter plunge. I’m now Twittering…whatever the heck that means.
I think it means one more thing for an old coot to do to look like he’s able to hang with the cool kids…
I’m probably way late to this party, but check out this Michael Jordan video…”Maybe you’re just making excuses….”
(via Alwyn Cosgrove’s blog)
OK, so I think Chris is right about panty praise. I also happen to agree with him about Lee McDerment’s new CD. (Well, Chris, you may want to re-think the instrumental tracks on Lee’s CD.) But I digress…
I really have had it about up to here with those “Jesus is My Boyfriend” songs. But I digress…
In the interest of complete disclosure, though, let me hasten to add: I didn’t spend $400 on my last pair of jeans. (Heck, I’m not sure I’ve spent $400 on blue jeans altogether in my whole life!) In fact, I’m still convinced that Levi’s trump Lucky and 501 is a waaaay more manly number than Seven. But I digress…
I’m not enamored of the pseudo-sport involving “stepping on the gas and turning left.” I still don’t understand tattoos or ultimate fighting. But I digress…
And although I enjoy the aroma of a fine unlit cigar, it’s highly unlikely that I’ll be lighting one up any time soon. I learned a long time ago that drinking a beer every now and again won’t send you to hell, but it’ll sure give the horse’s bladder a large sense of relief, and so you won’t get much of an argument from me over the finer points of lager vs. pilsner vs. pale ale vs. microbrews vs. PBR. But I digress…
I probably won’t talk in my messages about having needles applied to um…strategic locations. But I digress…
I’m not likely to punch anyone in the throat or anything like that. But I digress…
Having said all that, I’m about as all-American, red-blooded male as you’ll find, but that new Publix commercial – about the newlyweds who come to Grandma’s house for dinner, and leave with the tattered recipe card from Grandma – had me wiping a little dust a few minutes ago.
Come to think of it, several of those Publix seasonal ads have had the same effect! Sorry!
Man! I sure am glad we’re saying “see you later” to this bunch! (Wonder if there’s going to be anything in it for us? Hmmmm….)
My dos céntimos worth…maybe not criminal, and maybe technically not unethical, but let’s just call it unpleasant, and leave it at that, shall we?