A new era of computing

You have got to watch this video and tell me what you think.

Ministry Commercialism

There are many movies that lend themselves to creating commercial opportunities beyond the movie itself. One obvious movie is Shrek the Third. A certain fast food company is hawking the dolls and other paraphernalia associated with the movie. The kids just have to have this stuff. And while the family is eating a quick meal it's no big deal to add a couple of dolls to the tab. So movies often bring in more than just ticket sales. Not a bad day for capitalism. From a business standpoint it's actually a pretty good move.

I don't know if this is a trend but it appears that some movies may be doing the same thing for church ministries. A new movie, Evan the Almighty, is due out June 22. It's about a guy who is chosen by God to build an ark because a flood is coming (Wait a minute, didn't God promise that He wouldn't destroy the world again by a flood? So why is He reneging His promise?). The trailers for the movie appear quite funny. I'm actually thinking of going to see it just to see what happens. Morgan Freeman plays God (he also played God in Bruce Almighty - interesting!). Anyway, here is a link about obtaining paraphernalia from the movie for your ministry. What do you think? Is this a trend?

Memorial Day at Epcot

This Memorial Day we met our friends (Doug and Leslie Thatcher) from the Tabernacle congregation at Epcot. They come down to Disney a couple of times a year. They have friends in the Kissimmee - Judy and Ed. Eventually Doug and Leslie hope to move here (maybe two years). Anyway, we had a great time. The highlight of the day was the Gary Puckett concert. He had three half hour concerts. We got to the first two. Epcot's Test Track was waiting for us during his third concert. After the second concert we got to meet him, get an autograph, and take a picture. What a great guy he is! He still has a set of pipes on him (even at 65). I brought the liner notes from his greatest hits CD that I have for him to autograph. During his first concert he did a tribute to the vets in the audience. He had them stand in order for everyone to acknowledge them. Then he sang a song called "Home" which I had never heard. It was about a soldier wanting to go home and praying for the folks back home. It was a moving tribute and a great song. His music is still groovy!

Hey, I got a promotion!

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: The Right Reverend Robert the Subservient of Puddleston St Droop Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

Lisa had a quirky thing at her blog. So I tried it. And now I'm a "Right Reverend!" I hope by next year I can take this test and become "The Holy Right Reverend." Then after that become "The Most Holy Right Reverend." I hope a pay raise comes with this promotion. But my biggest question is where is Puddleston St Droop?

Helping the Helper

I received an email from Tim Westbrook (Associate Director for Institute for Church & Family) telling me about an upcoming event called "Helping the Helper" on June 5-8 at Harding University. Tim claims the following:

The Institute for Church & Family would like to invite you to attend our
Helping the Helper seminar in June 5-8. We will cover your lodging and food
here on Harding's campus.

He also gives the following as a description of the seminar:

"In conjunction with Marriage and Family Therapy, we will host a seminar
designed to teach ministers and youth ministers how to reach out to those in
their communities who are hurting emotionally and mentally. All instructors
are licensed counselors with years of experience.

"The seminar is fluid dealing with sexual abuses, divorce, death, marriage,
mental abuse, mediation, etc."

He says that if anyone is interested they should contact Penny Light at 501-279-4660. Tim's email is twestbrook@harding.edu and the web site is http://www.churchandfamily.net/

I have been to their web site but couldn't find further information. This seems to be an interesting offering in light of the revelations of sexual abuse in the church by ministers in recent times. Does anyone know about this?

Trey's a College Graduate!

Simply Christian

How many of us have taught "first principles" classes in our churches? N. T. Wright's latest offering Simply Christian is an attempt to be sort of a first principles kind of book. It is following in the footsteps of C. S. Lewis's Mere Christianity. I've been reading NT Wright for several years now and I've never thought to associate the words "simple" or "simply" with his writings. He is one of the deepest thinkers I've known even though he rarely uses big words. I never need a dictionary in reading him. This latest book continues that trend for me at least.

The book is divided into three sections. He follows a pattern similar to Lewis. The first section discusses four longings that Wright believes are universal to all humanity. He weaves these longings into the rest of the book to show that Christianity does make sense because it answers those longings. The second section of the book is about the Godhead and how God fulfills those longings. The third and last section concerns living out the image we find in the second section.

I had trouble reading the first section. Perhaps because it is Wright's reflection on how he sees the world. I knew what he was doing but still found it hard to follow. The second section was easier reading but the third was where I found myself slowing down and trying to take in every word. Maybe that's just me.

Wright states in his forward that he is writing for those inside and outside Christianity. Indeed the subtitle of his book is "Why Christianity Makes Sense." On the back of the dust cover is the recommendation of several well-known authors. Yet I don't think that these recommendations will tell others whether or not Wright's book has really accomplished his purpose. It seems to me that the publisher should have set up some kind of focus group that included a wide range of people inside and outside of Christianity. Then select recommendations from those groups for the dust cover. That would tell us if he really accomplished his purpose.

An interesting development is that Touchstone Magazine is featuring an article by Wright about C. S. Lewis's book Mere Christianity. You can read it online here. It is entitled aptly Simply Lewis. Then if you like you can join in a discussion about Wright's comments on their blog (here).
Wright brings up some interesting points about Lewis and Mere Christianity that I didn't know (of course I am not a Lewis scholar or avid fan, just a causal fan). I think it is well worth reading and will perhaps add to your understanding of Wright's book as well as Lewis's book.

I really believe that Wright's book is a valuable addition to a preacher's library. For me the highlight of the book was his brief section on baptism (p.212-215), . I started emphasizing some years ago that baptism was a participation (and identification with) by faith in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus in my invitations. I think that is the intent of baptism. Wright's discussion of baptism has really added to my understanding of baptism and its place in the proclamation of the gospel.

The interesting part of the book was his chapter on the New Creation. I was intrigued by his view that we are going to live on a redeemed earth when all is said and done. At this point I'm not sure about the whole discussion (you can go to Bobby Valentine's blog for a discussion from his perspective on the new creation - Bobby like Wright has some interesting points to make). However, Wright didn't really deal with the tension in the NT between the idea of a redeemed and liberated creation (Romans 8:18-25) and the idea that our citizenship is in heaven (Php.3:20-21). I have no doubt that part of God's redemption is restoring creation back to its original state. I'm just not sure whether that means we are going to inhabit it. What I do know is that we will be in eternal fellowship with God in a spiritual bodily state (1Cor.15:42-49) when all is said and done. I'm not sure this is an appropriate topic for new Christians. It will definitely be tough to teach it as Wright does in some of our congregations or even present it as a possibility. I think that is a pretty heady topic but I do understand why he included it.

All in all a good book. It will be valuable as resource material for those teaching first principle classes. It also serves as a reminder to the rest of us as to the general flow and content of the Bible. He seeks to take all the additional stuff religious people have added over the years and boil it down to what is simple and important.

Florida is for Lovers

We were introduced to a recurring phenomena last September here in Florida, love bugs. These crazy bugs emerge twice a year (late April,early May, and then September) to mate. Some of the locals call this "Fly United" season. I thought about calling this post "Love is in the air" in order to get a musical theme in.

These pests apparently migrated from parts west (Louisiana) to Florida. They are seen from South Carolina to Florida. If you want to read a little more about them click here. Last Thursday I got out my lawn mower but the bugs were so thick that I decided to wait until later. It is at times like this when I think God has a great sense of humor.

Public reading of Scripture Part II

While doing my senior thesis at Rochester College I came across this fascinating article in Interpretation Magazine by Donald Juel (Interpretation: Essays on Bible and Theology, January 1997, "The Strange Silence of the Bible," Donald Juel, p.5-19). The strange silence to which the article title refers is the lack of public reading in the assembly. Juel isn't talking about following a lectionary schedule, but rather practicing reading the Scriptures out loud for effect. Words are powerful and can be very powerful when spoken in the right way.

Juel actually makes two points in his article. First, the Bible was created to be read aloud (p.7). He maintains that part of this reason is that the Bible was created in a culture that was oral in nature. So even though we have a written text it is still meant to be read aloud. He mentions a time when the Gospel of Mark was "performed" in public. He noticed that the audience laughed on occasion. The reader knew how to dramatically portray the situation so that the audience not only heard what the text said, but heard the way in which Jesus might have spoken. The audience actually heard the exasperation in Jesus' voice from the text.

His second point is that we preachers (or teachers) haven't done our exegesis properly unless we read the text out loud (p.6). He gives three examples of texts where the reading might be done differently so that the audience will see something different in the text than what they normally see (Luke 15:11-32; Mark 15:39; Mark 4:1-20). In particular is the passage in Mark 15:39 where the centurion looks at the cross and claims that Jesus must have been God's son. A student in one of Juel's class suggested the text be read sarcastically. Of course that reading affected the way the class looked at the text and it's meaning. I haven't read out loud of late, but for a time I practiced this and found it to be helpful in my study each week. I would read the text aloud several times and from several translations. I tried to alter the way in which I read it each time.

I experienced this idea of reading the text out loud in public while we were in Tabernacle, NJ. One year we wanted to emphasize reading our Bibles daily in one year. So we kicked off the year on New Year's Eve by gathering at the building (in the old auditorium) and for two hours we read out loud from Genesis 1 to 25. As each man read a chapter I noticed that the text seemed to come more alive for me. It was better when a little inflection was added but still the over all effect was grand. Then on the fifth Wednesday during the rest of the year we read for services instead of our usual class. I would choose our section (Psalms, Gospels, and other sections) and assign the readings. I really loved that time. I would hear new things in the text I hadn't heard before. What a powerful experience.

One of the down sides to this is that we live in a society that is tied to the clock. One of my teachers at Sunset (can't remember which one - maybe Richard Rogers) used to say we were "clock-eyed." To really be effective we need more time in our assemblies to hear the word read out loud. If a congregation will take the time to listen, they will be hooked.

Interesting!

Anthony Esolen, editor of Touchstone Magazine and a Catholic, was invited to speak at Faulkner University. You can read about his impressions of the university and his reception here. It is fascinating to read about the contact that other individuals and groups have with us. Perhaps our reputation is not as bad here in the South as some claim it to be. Esolen was invited by the Great Books program to speak about Dante's Purgatory. Only the first paragraph of his post is about Faulkner, the rest is about some other experiences he had recently with other groups.

Public reading of Scripture

Paul wrote to Timothy (1Timothy 4:13):

Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching. (NIV & TNIV)

Until I come, give attention to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation and teaching. (NASB)

Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. (ESV)

Till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. (NKJV & KJV)

It is interesting to me first that the word "Scripture" doesn't appear in this text yet several translations put it in assuming that is what Paul means when he tells Timothy to devote himself to reading. Only the KJV and the NKJV leave it out. I don't have any doubt that we should assume in interpreting this text that Paul is telling Timothy to pay attention to reading the Scriptures publicly to the gathered church.

What I would like to know is why in our fellowship (Churches of Christ for those of you who may not know my background) we did not include this as one of the acts of the assembly? It seems pretty obvious to me that reading of Scripture was approved in Scripture and practiced by the early church (and even in the Old Testament). This is why lectionaries developed. I have the church where I serve now (and churches in the past) read my text for preaching just before the sermon. But I have not talked them into reading a text or text's as part of a pattern.

I have several questions for all of you who may come by.

1. Does your congregation have Scripture reading as part of your worship service apart from reading the text for preaching?
2. What pattern do you use for reading Scripture? Do you use a lectionary or some other way of choosing the text or texts to be read?
3. Was this a part of the congregation's worship service before you came? If not was it difficult for you to have them start doing it? How did you convince them they should have reading of Scripture as a regular part of the assembly?
4. How is the reading working out? Have you noticed a difference in the congregation?
5. Are you working on developing this as a part of your assembly?

I think I like this!

You Are Mexican Food

Spicy yet dependable. You pull punches, but people still love you.

What Kind of Food Are You?

You Are a Chocolate Chip Cookie

Traditional and conservative, most people find you comforting. You're friendly and easy to get to know. This makes you very popular - without even trying!

What Kind of Cookie Are You?

I took this quiz over at Lisa's blog and these are my results. I'm pleased. Considering my post yesterday the first result is understandable. I like what kind of cookie I am since that is my absolute favorite cookie. Loni and I bake really good chocolate chip cookies. In fact we have doug in the refrigerator right now and will probably make some tonight (we ate up the home made ice cream last night). Still how can you tell what kind of food or cookie you are from just five questions? I guess this is a part of blogging, silly stuff on occasion. So take the quiz and have some fun.

guacamole live

When we were visiting Pat's folks (Lon [Grandy] & Jeanne [Nana] Mohundro) recently we went out to South of the Border for lunch. They had an interesting appetizer called Guacamole Live. The server actually came to your table with avocados and various extras (cilantro, jalapeños, tomatoes, onions, lime, etc,) and mixed up the guacamole right there while you watched. You of course got to control what all went in but what a treat (that is if you love guacamole). So Loni and I decided to have guacamole live at our house tonight. Pat planned to have tacos for dinner, so Loni bought avocados and other goodies and we made guacamole (pictured above). Instead of frying corn tortillas (we usually do them soft and not crispy) we had flour tortillas (fajitas style). It was great. Now anyone want to share a guacamole recipe? Loni and I are looking to expand our taste bud horizons.

Bob's First Golf Tournament

Since not many of you appreciated my sense of humor with the last post I will move on to golf. Yesterday I got to play in a golf tournament (Trey are you jealous? That's Trey my son not Trey Morgan). It was a fund raiser for Central Florida Bible Camp (click here). The tournament was a scramble type. For those of you like me who are not as up on golf terminology, a scramble tournament means that you play as a team (foursome). When the team tees off, the team decides which tee shot is the best. All the team members then place their balls within a club length's of the ball. They continue that process to the flag. The first putt made counts for the whole team as well. So the whole team ends up with the same score. Our team shot an 82, 10 over par. Not bad for my third game ever and my first tournament ever. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Of course my score is due to my team members (Doug Horton, Eddie Stillwell, and Ricky Brown). I had two tee shots that were the best of my team and a couple of putts that went in first as well. Each team started at a designated hole and we just happen to start at #1. We shot a 43 for the first nine and 39 for the back nine. We shot par on only 2 holes in the first nine and six on the last nine. I had so much fun. It turns out the Bible School here has a couple of fund raising tournaments a year and I plan on playing in them as well. Plus several men in the congregation here are serious players and want me to play a round with them. I guess after all these years, I'm going to have to take up golf.

Top Ten Ways You Can Tell Someone Near You Is Only Using 1 Square Of Toilet Paper Per Visit

I'm sure you have heard Sheryl Crow's suggestion that we all do our part in helping to be more environmentally conscious by using only one square of toilet paper per visit. I thought I would help you identify those close to you might be actually taking Ms. Crow's suggestion seriously. I'm sure most would not discuss such delicate matters in public so you might need to know the signs of those who are "green" when it comes to toilet paper. So here are the Top Ten Ways To Identify Someone Close To You Who Is Using Only 1 Square Of Toilet Paper Per Visit.

10. They are constantly running comparison tests at home trying to decide which toilet paper is the thickest and most absorbent.
9. They ask restaurant managers how many plies the toilet paper in the restrooms have.
8. They run comparisons tests at home to see which toilet paper is the thickest and most absorbent.
7. They have a new gig - doing commercials for the toilet paper company that claims to have the thickest and most absorbent paper.
6. They're getting fatter - saved money from toilet paper goes for more food.
5. No one shakes hands with them.
4. People are seen running away from them holding their noses.
3. Their hands have turned a funky color.
2. They've dumped their stock in toilet paper and purchased Clean Butt's Bidetspa stock.
1. They've put photovaltaic cells on their roof to power their new Clean Butt's Bidetspa and save electricity.

Not my birthday today but . . .

More Fun Quizzes at QuizPox.com

Jack Bauer & Battery Life

We are currently trying to upgrade our cell phones. We've been pouring over the specs to see which ones are the best. One of the specs that is important to us is talk time or to put it another way, battery life. Most of the phones we've looked at are rated at somewhere between 3 hours and 4 hours of talk time. Standby time (no talking just waiting) is somewhere in the neighborhood of 300 plus hours (some as high as 16 days or 384 hours). So if no one calls you, your battery can last up to 16 days without recharging (yea right). But if someone (or several someones) does call you have at most 4 hours or so before you need to recharge.

So how does Jack Bauer talk on his cell phone during the 24 hour crisis he faces each season? I have yet to see him charging his phone in his car or at CTU. Maybe he carries around extra batteries (at least 6, 6 batteries X 4 hours of talk time = 24 hours). He carries around ammo clips so why not batteries? I have yet to see him change a battery. Maybe he does it while he's off the camera and we are seeing another scene.

Then again I have never timed how much time he spends on his cell phone. Maybe if we timed it he doesn't use his cell phone for more than 4 hours. You know that would be an interesting feat for someone, timing how much Jack Bauer uses his cell phone on 24. I can just see it now on Trivial Pursuit under the "Entertainment" category - How much time does Jack Bauer actually spend on his cell phone during the season of 24?

Christians as Victims

I was reading in World Magazine about an incident that took place in my former home state of New Jersey. Indeed the incident took place in the very county where we lived for 10 years, Burlington. It seems that Burlington Township High School on March 22 of this year staged a terrorist drill to help prepare the school in the event of a terrorist attack. Two police officers stormed the school masquerading as the terrorists. So far so good. The problem came when the local residents discovered the script for the scenario. It seems that the masquerading police officers were pretending to be members of a right-wing fundamentalist group called "The New Crusaders" who don't believe in separation of church and state. In the script a daughter of one of the members was expelled from the school for praying before class. The attack was in retribution for the expelling. Details of the script leaked and all ----broke loose! (how about all heaven broke loose?)

Anyway, local and national Christian leaders demanded a formal apology from the police department and the school. Legal action is being considered. It seems they felt that blaming conservative Christians is not only "inappropriate but outrageous, and raises serious constitutional questions as well." (quoted from World Magazine, April 21, 2007; p.28) Our religious tenor today has approached the victimology used by other groups. If everyone else is doing it, hey, why don't we?

Contrast this approach with the Apostles in Acts 5:40-41. The apostles had been arrested and while the Council was debating what to do with them Gamaliel warned them to take care because if the actions of the Apostles were of God they could not stop the Apostles. The Council decided to flog the Apostles and then ordered them not to speak in Jesus' name. The Apostles went away rejoicing that they had been counted worthy to suffer for the name of Jesus. Oh for us to return to that kind of an attitude.

It is a shame that our country was founded on principles from the Christian-Judeo heritage and that now our society seems to be doing everything possible to stop us from having any political influence. Certain ones in our society want to lower the moral standards that we find in the Bible. It appears to me that there is a concerted effort underway to undermine Christian teaching and influence in the public arena. Maybe instead of responding to these outrageous insults with surprise, shock, and threats of lawsuits, we should take to the streets with prayer, rejoicing that God has found us worthy to suffer for His name. Maybe we should thank those that attack our faith. Maybe we should claim James 1:2. What kind of response from the media would that create? I dont think they would know what to do with us.

Where's Bob?

I am currently in Christiansburg, VA visiting Dan, Lisa, Nathan, Jeremy, and Derek. I haven't been keeping up with my blog or your blogs. I'm having a grand time playing with the boys, helping Dan assemble a ping pong table, getting beat by said son-in-law at ping pong, getting up early with the grandsons, and talking with my other darling daughter (the other darling daughter I get to see daily) whom I haven't seen in a while. So I'll catch up with ya'all later on.

What do these stones mean?

Across from the building where the Mt. Dora congregation meets is a funeral home. The owner and manager are members at the congregation. When I first arrived I told them both that if they ever had a family that didn't have someone to do a funeral for them to please feel free to call on me. In Northern New Jersey I became friendly with a funeral director near our building and he asked one day if I would do a funeral for a family. Of course I said yes and from then on the director would call on occasion. Within two months of arriving here in Mt. Dora they called for me to do a funeral.

His name is Kirby. His late wife is Anita. She had a Ph. D. in some education field. She has written a couple of books in her field. She was 20 years older than Kirby. They had been married for 23 years. I met with Kirby for about 10 minutes before the funeral. I did the service there at the funeral. Then we went to the cemetery which is just about across the street (it's actually right next door to our building). After the services I invited Kirby to come to our worship services. He promised.

About a month later Kirby showed up one Sunday. He had been visiting his wife's grave and met one of our members whose wife was also buried in the same cemetery. Ed is in his late 70s or early 80s. He's one of our more active members. He and Kirby talked for a while and Ed also invited him to our services. With two invites Kirby decided to come.

Kirby has been coming on and off since that time. I've given him a DVD from World Video Bible School to view in order to learn more about us. He doesn't have much of a church background (maybe none at all) so I haven't pushed much. He's come to several of our activities. He's getting to know some of the folks here in the congregation. He's making progress but slowly. That's okay.

A couple of months ago he made an unusual request. The headstone for his wife's grave would be done soon, would I come to the cemetery and bless it when it was finished. I of course said yes. This past week he called late in the week to say it would be up on Friday, would I come on Saturday to bless it. I had a wedding at 2 PM on Saturday and he said no problem he thought 12:30 PM would be okay.

So his wife's sister, his wife's daughter, and two friends gathered to see the headstone. I used the text from Joshua 4. God told Joshua that the stones would cause their children to ask why are they here and what do they mean. Then they could explain the history of Israel. I told Kirby and those gathered that this headstone was there to mark the history of Anita. Not many people would ask about why it was there, they already knew. But they could come and remember the life of their friend, mother, and wife. Of course my talk and blessing lasted longer this this short paragraph. Then I said a prayer and ask God's blessing on this gathering and this headstone.

I don't know if Kirby will stay on this spiritual journey with us. He's still coming. But the more I live and the more I do ministry, the more interesting the journey has become.