Month: March 2007

As some of you know, Hope Church is sponsoring an art exhibition this coming Saturday night. This is the second year we have done this, and last year’s was truly spectacular. Andrea Rowe and her compatriots did a remarkable job of turning the auditorium into a beautiful art gallery with some phenomenal pieces of art, most from our own congregation.

This year we have solicited art from the community with a desire to build bridges into that community, and to honor artists, allowing them to see that their work brings glory to God whether they think so or not. The response has been good, given the native suspicion that artists can have of the church.

This morning the JoyFM, a local Christian radio station aired a short interview with me and promoted the exhibition. I sounded distinctively unexcited… but as John Thomas pointed out, I share more affinity for Puddleglum than Mr. Beaver.

The interview has not yet been posted, but when it is it will be accessible at the JoyFM web site. (Click here to go there.)

If you are wondering whether an art show should be held in a church ‘sanctuary, ‘ I addressed that in the Bradenton Herald recently, and you can access that here as long as they keep it on their site.

I hope that both of you (!) reading this will make a point to come Saturday night, 7PM to 9PM.

In a previous post, I commented on the hopelessness revealed in the final lines of a movie I had recently seen. My good friend Chris Finnegan commented

Well, looking at the list of screenplays from the author, he has written two of the movies I most hated in recent years, and do NOT recommend to anyone…”Being John Malcovich” and “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”.

Am I missing something in my movie viewing? Hmm…

I have not spoken with anyone who ‘hated’ Eternal Sunshine. Chris, you are first. Perhaps I should go back and watch it again to see what you might have hated. Perhaps I am missing something.

To me, in a light hearted way, the film treated the desire we may have from time to time to erase our past, to eliminate bad memories, to get rid of haunting reminders of mistakes made. But can we really erase our past? Is it something we should really want to try to do? I find these to be intriguing questions.

The answers movies give may not be our own, but they are answers which we should consider. I am reminded that I do not always watch movies to have my own world view verified. I watch to enjoy a story, yes. But as well I watch to understand what and how others think. And I watch to glorify God in the gifts he has given, even to those who rail against him. And at times what I see are those opposed to God in spite of themselves stating truth in such a way that it cannot be forgotten.

Thanks, Chris, for the stimulus.

Those of you with teenagers may enjoy the chuckle I had this afternoon while driving. I was stopped at a traffic light behind a van with a sign which read exactly as follows:

Mr. Fix-It of Bradenton
Minor, Mobile and Home Repairs

I’ve had a minor or two in my house who have seemed to be in need of repairing, but I’m not sure Mr. Fix-It is the one to call.

My friend Randy Lovelace is a pastor in the Redeemer network in New Jersey near Manhattan. He has made a number of contacts in the community through reviving an old passion of his, cycling, and joining a cycling club. A great idea which would serve us all well, if we pursue the right passion in the right venue.

Most of my passions are rather solitary. I mean, you can ride a bike in a pack; reading on the other hand is not much of a group activity. However, at the Braden River branch library a couple weeks ago I noticed that they had an ongoing book discussion group. So, I checked out the current selection and dove in. The book was about a sixty year old suburban mother whose daughter announced her engagement and whose sister left her husband on the same day. Two hundred pages of suburban life, some of it redeeming, but all of it out of my interest zone.

But that was alright. Then I went, with some trepidation, the the discussion group. As I drove to the meeting, I told Hannah, my daughter, “I hope this isn’t just a group of three single women.” It wasn’t. It was a group of six single women. They were all very nice, but I did not fit in – at several levels.

The experience has me curious: what does bring people out of their houses for serious interaction? Most people will generally not attend random library book groups just as they will not attend random church events. I inquired about a group at Books-a-Million. They tell me they used to have such groups, but discontinued them since no more than three would actually show up.

I’m back to square one. It seems clear what God is telling me. If I want a group of thoughtful non-Christian people, I will need to invite them myself. I have some ideas. I’m interested in yours.

With the University of North Carolina losing its quarterfinal game against Georgetown, Geoff’s last chance of winning this year’s bracket challenge evaporated. Geoff had chosen UNC to win the tournament. As things now stand, I could lose all my games, and still come out on top by 13 points. I’ve selected a UF – OSU final, with OSU taking the title from the Gators. We’ll see.

Someone asked what we have riding on this. To my knowledge, nothing ‘cept bragging rights. Maybe we need a trophy of some kind that will live in the triumphant pastor’s study for the year until the next tournament. We’ll work on that.

For the second year in a row, Geoff and I are engaging in a little March Madness. Last year we pitted my luck against his knowledge, completing contrary NCAA Men’s basketball tournament bracket. He blew me away with a sound and solid victory. However, I’ve got him on the run this year. In the first round, I chose 30 of the first 32 winners (Duke and Texas Tech failed me) and 12 of the next 16. Our scoring assigns higher values to the later rounds (the final is worth 32). So though I’m winning by 17 points at present, there is plenty of time for Geoff to prevail.

As long as I’m winning, I’ll be sure to keep you posted.

Geoff, by the way, has chosen North Carolina to win the championship. I’m pulling for a Florida/Ohio State rematch with Ohio State getting its revenge.

What do you all think?

Yesterday I preached on hope. As I prepared the message, I wondered about how hopeless the average person in our culture feels these days.

On Friday night, Barb and I watched a recommended film Confessions of a Dangerous mind. It is about Chuck Barris, the creator and producer of such stellar TV accomplishments as The Dating Game, The Newlywed Game, and The Gong Show. He was a pioneer and ahead of his time, and he was nuts. He was persuaded that he was also a CIA hit-man. Hmmm.

The film ends with the real Chuck Barris speaking to the camera, presumably speaking his own words. Here is the script, from the screenwriter’s web site.

The actual Barris is being interviewed.

ACTUAL BARRIS

Y’know, I came up with a new game show idea recently. It’s called The Old Game. You got three old guys with loaded guns on stage. They look back at their lives, see who they were, what they accomplished, how close they came to realizing their dreams. The winner is the one who doesn’t blow his brains out. He gets a refrigerator.

The camera holds on Barris’s face as he puffs a cigar.

BLACK.

THE END

If this is a reflection of the hopelessness that some men feel at the end of their lives (and I think it is), then the need for gospel hope is apparent.

A few months ago, I flirted with blogging. The flirt is now ready to commit.

My flirtations gave me a taste of what is involved in this strange new (to me) world. I learned very quickly that a blogger is a writer, and that any writing is a discipline. A blog that is posted once every now and then is of marginal value. I realized that to keep at this would require discipline.

So, after beginning, I pulled back quickly. For the past few months, I have been content to observe the on-line world and, hopefully, to learn some things.

I’ve learned that blogs can be very helpful, if not over-indulged. There are millions of blogs out there. It would be easy to lose oneself in reading much that does not need reading. But I have stumbled across a few blogs that offer insight and often contrary opinion which I find valuable.

The features most appreciated in the blogs I’ve latched on to are relevance, insight, brevity, personality, honesty, and frequency. Whether I can reproduce such qualities in my own has yet to be seen.

The flirt’s commitment at this point is a simple one: to add a post at least weekly between now and the end of May. At that point I will evaluate and make a decision about the future. Of course, some weeks there will be more.

As always, I will be interested in the comments of all who read these posts.

Both of you. ☺