My Quota of Quotes

As the year 2011 draws to a close, I am reflecting on the wonderful things people have said to me this year. I guess when you work for a church everyone that attends is like your boss. Therefore, some critical comments are most welcome as long as we mix it with a compliment. It reminds me of the passing phrase "no offense". That  phrase is meant to be read as "no offense" as in... "I didn't mean to offend you"; not "no offense" as in the Philadelphia Eagles football team. That's completely different.
People feel the need to say "no offense", usually following a statement that was in fact offensive, but if we say that it isn't, then it must be so. Something like; "Your voice sounded really awful today, but usually it is better, no offense. You must be sick."  Yep, that was an actual comment. My response was "Thanks, I actually feel pretty good. Perhaps your hearing is a bit off today, no offense". And so it goes. The verbal sparring that takes place while smiling and exchanging "no offense" tags that excuse our unfriendly exchanges. Whoever created that phrase excusing our rude comments was an idiot, no offense.
This weekend we performed a Christmas program that was unlike our "normal" music. Our church music is contemporary in song and instrumentation. This program was "classical baroque" with chamber choir accompanied by double bass, cello, classical guitar and harpsichord. We had two professional actors that attend our church read the narration.  I arranged all the music and worked hard for several months to make this different on purpose. Following our performance one person said to me, "the classical guitar sounded amazing, even though it was you playing it."  Oh...thanks?
Earlier this year I produced a CD of worship from our church. I selected the songs and recorded the majority of the music in my home studio. We did this as a fundraiser for a music mission trip. By the way, if you are interested in a copy of this CD, contact me and I will make sure you get one. One of the leaders in our church told me she thought our CD was alright, but if I really wanted to make a better one next time, consult with her to choose songs more people will like. This was after she asked where the songs came from and I told her I wrote several of them.
Obviously these are not the kind of comments I like to reflect on at the end of the year. There have been so many wonderful, appreciative people that lift my spirits to encourage and motivate me. I want to say thank you to those people. I want to say thanks to the thousands who visit my blog every month to read what I write about. It is quite a humbling experience to think my words are interesting enough for others to read, when I place such a high value on people's time. I am really looking forward to the new year. Not because this one wasn't good enough, but because I love to see what God does next. His plan for us is to learn to love better. Love God, love one another, and love who we are, probably in that order but I am pretty sure that isn't really important. The priority or order of things isn't the issue because we are supposed to do all of those things simultaneously.
I have said many times here "God has grace for the human race" because I think the Bible makes it clear. If it's good enough for God, we should give it a try too. So the next time you hear the phrase "no offense", be sure to offer the cliche "none taken" with a smile.

The Anglican Mission Smorgasbord

Well, I finally jumped in. A bit late to the discussion, but after all, my blog is mostly dedicated to the musings of a Worship Leader working at a church. I have no clout or influence, but I do have an opinion and it is usually spiced with sarcasm so I figured I should weigh in. Many people have asked me if I would blog about the recent developments in the Anglican Mission. I didn't think I would until I couldn't stand the stuff I have been reading and decided to add to the smorgasbord of opinions.
I like the word smorgasbord. If I had some of those crazy fonts I could insert the proper characters in place of our "o" and "a" but since I don't...try to imagine I used them and now it is a Swedish word for buffet. Everyone loves Swedish stuff. Who doesn't like the Swedish Chef? Smorgasbord. The word is usually associated with food but we also use it as a description for something that has a large variety. Not just a large variety, but also when you think smorgasbord, you think of all things good. I'm not sure what you call a large variety of bad things, other than trash, but that really isn't important here.
So after reading all the articles on AMiA, I have determined that there is no simple summary so I will take a shot at it. By the way, "summary" means I left out a bunch of details. My blog; my prerogative on which details I leave out. The Anglican Mission in America (AMiA) is an organization of churches Chuck Murphy created when he left the Episcopal Church. In order to be an official Anglican organization recognized in the world by other Anglicans, he needed an endorsement from a genuine Anglican province. Rwanda and Asia stepped in to fill that role and now Chuck is Bishop Murphy. What they didn't tell us (or at least what I didn't get)....apparently this organization is not part of the province of Rwanda, as I had thought. It is a business venture of Bishop Murphy. So when Bishop Murphy breaks ties with Rwanda and leaves, so does the Anglican Mission. And that is what has happened. Bishop Murphy has cut our relationship with the Province of Rwanda.
Editor's note here...I really don't know what happened to cause this and I certainly am not taking sides.
This is where it gets complicated. Our church is an AMiA church, but our priests were received as official missionary priests in the province of Rwanda. So it would seem our church is under the authority of Bishop Murphy, but our priests are under the authority of Rwanda, but not Bishop Murphy. What? Exactly.
As someone who works at a church, this is kind of like a buy-out, but I'm not sure who is buying what. As far as I know, I will still be paid every week by New Covenant Church. Where will we go for the special meetings? That is what all the important people will figure out. I'm okay to let them do it. I have a Christmas service to plan and many visitors to share wonderful music with. Why are there so many other people involved in speculating what is going to happen in church politics? I'm not sure, but I am sure every minute they are doing that is one minute less they are doing ministry of the church.
Smorgasbord. A variety of good things. Maybe there are bad things to eat, but we try to eat the good stuff. If we get something bad, we usually recognize it as bad and don't eat the whole thing. We leave it for waste. Then when we return to the buffet, we choose only the things that were good. God made us like that. We have the ability to choose the good from the bad. Sure we can be tricked, but we are fast learners. It didn't work out so well for Adam and Eve, but God expects that. And He still has our back. Christmas will still come. What will you do to tell the Christmas story this year?

Don't Stand So Close to Me

Some songs become anthems in their time. There are many hymns which have managed to survive the ages, and a few contemporary praise songs have already etched a place into the place you would etch something.  Woven into the fabric of our lives. Every cliche that says it is something you will remember.  The Bible is full of stuff we are supposed to remember. The Last Supper. Jesus says "do this in remembrance of me." And so we do, or at least some of the churches do.  I'm not sure how people manage the rules in the Bible to select the ones they think will count. When the big guy says we should do it, it seems like a deal breaker if we don't.  It's not like other rules.

What about the rules for construction. Some people quote construction "codes" like they wrote them.  A fence cannot exceed 6 feet high when it backs up to a residential roadway, but if it is a city highway, the wall can be 15 feet. I'm not sure if that is true, but it sounds good.  Wherever that code is, it probably is right next to the code for urinal spacing.

Urinal spacing you ask? I believe there is an unwritten rule about how close two urinals can be together. In our church, in the main church building, we have a men's room. It contains three toilet stalls and two urinals. In most bathrooms the urinals have a little wall between them. The wall of separation. Not ours. Our urinals are about 8 inches apart with no wall. In my 19 years of attending this church, I have not once seen two men use the urinals simultaneously. If one is taken, you go use a toilet stall.  In church we can be buddy-buddy and even hug another guy, but once you enter the men's room, all bets are off. No talking. 

Awkward as it may seem, you can listen to the service through overhead speakers.  This idea had to come from a man who thought up this great distraction to avoid conversation. "Sorry Bob, can't talk right now.  I am concentrating on the sermon."
Maybe the urinals are put there as a test. Male bonding. We all failed.

So why the urinal blog?
It occurred to me we like excuses to avoid uncomfortable situations.  Speakers in a restroom give us the excuse not to talk.  "I thought you were going to talk to him" is a good way to avoid greeting visitors on Sunday. "I don't have time to share everything this person needs to hear, or answer all their questions" is a good excuse to walk away from an opportunity to share your faith with someone. Too many people avoid.
Too many Christians use "I want to be nice" to avoid telling someone what they need to hear.
There are lots of stories in the Bible about confrontation. There is no lesson to be learned in a story without conflict. Think about that.
Conflict draws us close. If closer is good, conflict must be okay. Avoidance separates us. If separation is bad, our urinals must be okay.