Get Her Words Out

Hmm

"Pater Noster"  by Sean Landers (detail)

What I wrote in worship this morning

I'm forever taking notes and writing things as I sit in worship, here's what came out this morning:

• Isn't it odd how the words and actions of a single person can sour you on an entire church?

• For all of my talk of the body of Christ as a community, it only takes one person, I don't even know who, to destroy that sense of community.

• I think that I want to be angry, it would be easier to just be righteously angry.

• I want to shout, I want to cry, I want to hurl, I don't want to sing.

• How can I ever hope to sell my ministry and skills if I can't give them away?

• Shake the dust off your feet. [This was one of the texts for the morning.  Really.  --mf]

• Where else is there to go?

• Tell them the truth.  Tell them how "welcoming" and "God is still speaking" are just slogans and don't really mean anything.  Tell them how there are people in the world who judge others solely by what they've heard about them and never bother to talk to them.  Tell them that some of those people are their parents.  Tell them how quickly you gave me up to them.  [If the associate had asked what he should tell the youth about why I wasn't coming anymore, this is what I wanted to tell him --mf]
  

I thought . . .

That getting involved with a church would be a great way to start moving forward, to feel better about myself and to feel more connected to this place.

I guess I was wrong.

I decided to get more involved with the UCC church that I've been attending here, after all, people keep telling me to check out the UCC because they will be more welcoming than the PC(USA).

I started volunteering with the youth, in addition to being an adviser I was going to teach their Bible study in a couple of weeks.  I was also going to sign up for their new member class that starts in a couple of weeks (which probably had something to do with how, on my last visit to Montgomery, my minister introduced me as a former member of my home church) and I even (for about 10 seconds) considered joining their choir after the fifth person asked me.

Then, at about 11:00 this morning, less than 100 hours after my first meeting with the youth, I got a call from the Associate for Youth and Families explaining that a parent had called to say that she didn't want her son being taught by someone like me.  Which means that I'm not going to be working with the youth anymore.

I'm not even sure that I want to worship there anymore.  Or maybe I'll just start wearing my "Browncoat" shirt every Sunday.

Buffy Season Eight #6 ---No Future For You

Oh The Places You'll Go!

Mom used to read me that book before she tucked me in. . .nights she was sober enough, anyway.

But Dr. Suess never tells you that even with brains in your head and feet in your shoes . . .

. . . You can still end up in Cleveland

Bad children's story topics

Just because I was feeling silly at church the other day:

• Job 42:10-17  "We Made You and We Can Make More; Never Forget That Your Replaceable"

• Judges 4:17-22  "Hey Kids, Who Wants to Go Camping" or "Fun With Camping Equipment"

• Hosea 1:2  "Your Mother the Whore"  (especially good for recently divorced fathers)

Pretty, Pretty Princess

(My new sticker shows part of the real me)

I made it back from my trip Saturday afternoon.  I learned that on a round trip from Greeley, CO to Atlanta, GA you can listen to "Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix" and "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" and have about an hour left over.

The rest of the More Light Conference was very good, Erin Swenson, Jack Rodgers, workshops and worship.  Best, though, were the people, new friends and old.

I also got to spend a lot of time with new friends and old at Columbia: Ashley, Elizabeth, Martha, Mary Martha, Sharon and Whitney.

It took me two days to get out of the storage locker I had in Decatur, two trips to the Salvation Army to give away all the furniture I had left and two trips to the Post Office to ship 18 boxes of books.  Then everything else filled up my truck, and a cargo bag on the roof.

I had a nice one day visit with the folks in Montgomery before starting to head back to here through Mississippi, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Kansas.

Quidditch players, Stormtroopers and Presbyterians!!

I drove across the country this week to come to the More Light conference in Atlanta.  I had a good drive, visited a friend in Nashville on the way and listened to 20 of the 23 CDs of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

The More Light conference didn't start until Friday evening so in the afternoon I went to Dragon*Con and had great fun looking at the art and exhibits, seeing the people and meeting a comic artist I really like.

I saw an entire quidditch team, Jedi, Anime characters, Goths, and even evil Willow. (At Dragon*Con, not at the More Light conference)

It occurs to me as I write this that the reason I'm so happy at both places is because at both places I'm surrounded by my kind of people.