26October2007
Posted by nate under: edumacation.
Because I’m such a bright and scholarly CHRISTIAN with a wonderfully mature and capable hand on the pulse of my vibrant and contagious faith it seems only good right and salutary that I should take the fledgling faith of our church’s high school souls under my eagle like wing, and raise them in the straight and narrow for one hour every Sunday morning. That’s right, I’m a sunday school teacher.
Last week we were talking about Bonhoeffer and ethics and the plan was to do a little role playing, watch a clip about Bonhoeffer, and talk about how Lutheran’s aproach making ethical decisions. My ingenious conversation starter was to leave a dollar bill laying on the couch, come in to the room a little late so the kids had already arrived and then see what they had done with the dollar. Kept it? Asked who it belonged too? Put it in the offering? Buried it in a field?
So during church I went up and planted the dollar. After church I hung out for awhile and waited for the kids to head on up. All the little kids went up to their sunday school rooms but the high school kids just sat around waiting for me. So finally I figured if we were going to have any class time I’d have to lead the way and we could all deal with the dollar together.
So we headed up to our room. And the dollar was gone. Some mangy little kid must of wandered into the youth room on their way to their class room and snatched it.
It never goes as planned!
But it always goes.
22October2007
Posted by nate under: fact.
I don€™t go to the bank because it€™s cool. I don€™t buy groceries because it€™s cool (although the co-op does have it€™s share of organic hipsters). I go to an incredibly uncool dentist, and the daily vitamin I ingest has zero cool factor.
But I do go to the bank, I do buy groceries, I do go to the dentist (incredibly infrequently), and I do take a daily vitamin.
Sometimes I have cool experiences. My bank sometimes has tootsie rolls at the counter. Cool. The checkout guy moved into our neighborhood and now we€™re neighbors. That€™s cool. My dentist€¦ Okay no cool factor there. But my daily vitamin makes my skin look really good. Okay, that€™s a total fabrication. But if something cool did come out of taking a vitamin everyday I€™d be happy to let you know about it.
I didn€™t choose any of these things because they are cool. In fact I would be skeptical at best if I felt like any of these things were marketed as cool to me. I once walked into Target to buy an 1/8€ to 1/8€ stereo jack to plug my newly received ipod into the auxiliary jack on our car stereo. (Target and ipod will both now be sending me endorsement checks. Or at least patting each other on the back.) In a bright display for ipod-esque accessories I found the chord I needed. It was in a slick white I-look-like-an-apple-product sort of package and it cost $14.99. That seemed a little steep to me. I walked around the corner and found the exact same chord in a cheap cardboard/plastic bag package with the same logo GE has been using since 1492 and it cost $6.99. And it works great. And that€™s precisely the reason I am suspect of all things cool.
I don€™t want to be part of the $14.99 church model. I don€™t want to be part of anything remotely emergent (Emergent is to Church as sports car is to 40 something white male.) I don€™t want to be part of big Christian rock concerts and I don€™t want to be part of flashy youth gatherings. Or flashy adult gatherings. Or any gathering that involves flashing. Actually let me get back to you on that last one.
I€™m not saying these things are bad (Though really I am. Which makes no sense seeing as I have been deeply and positively impacted by all of the above. Except for the gathering that involved flashing. That was less than positive. But still very memorable.) I€™m just sick of them. I€™m sick of the glitz and glam of church. I€™m sick of churches that market and call it evangelism. But I€™m not sick of church. I love the church and I keep going and will continue to keep going because I need it, and it needs me, and it needs you.
And FYI, we€™re having an off the hook potluck next Sunday and you should totally come because we hired an awesome band and put up lots of posters and I might even dust off the trench coat I wore to that one memorable event that I€™m been blacklisted from. Durn you promise keepers!
19October2007
Posted by nate under: fact; family.
So the other morning my daughter goes downstairs to wake up visiting grandma who is watching a little morning TV. 14 hours later as she’s eating her bedtime snack and getting ready for teeth brushing she informs us that she’s getting a thing to put on her teeth to make them white so that she doesn’t have to brush anymore. Given that she never watches tv other than the occasional video from the library it’s safe to say that she soaked up that little nugget of marketing while waking up grandma. So what other commercials did she see? What else did her little sponge brain absorb? Kids don’t know a commercials motivation, it might as well be their sunday school teacher telling them the gospel truth. And this wasn’t even a commercial aimed at kids. Let’s pretend this is a portals of prayer and close with a prayer. Dear God, please smite the shitheads that prey on our children. Give them yellow teeth and bad dandruff that knows no cure. Amen.