In Which I Indulge in a Very Brief Lament

Oh, for crying out loud...PikeSpeak, has devolved into what is, essentially, just a food blog.  Where is the insightful commentary, the thoughtful prose, the whimsical (and yet manly) poetical musings, the incisive critique of contemporary culture, the music reviews, the deep spiritual philisophicationisms, or the gratuitous self-promotion?  Ummm...okay, maybe we have that last one...

Next, I'll probably be posting pix of the "Spaghetti Dinner for 150 People" thing that I'm doing on Family Night this Wednesday at church.   That one IS big fun, though, with the all the women from Nancy's Small Group helping out.  Actually, "helping" is not really the right word since, without them, it really wouldn't happen at all.  I think I may take some pictures of that.

I like spaghetti.  It's the best.  With garlic bread.  If you don't agree, then you clearly weren't raised right and your opinion is wrong.

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10 Reasons to Delete Your Facebook Account

An interesting article that makes clear some of the recent debate about Facebook's privacy policy and what it means for users:

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Mission Trip to Bogota

On Monday we leave for a short-term missions trip to Bogota, Colombia with a team of 12 people from our church. We have a sister church there, the North Church, and will be working in a variety of jobs, including the continuation of some remodeling at the Wesleyan Bible Institute, an important minisitry training center. The Bogota North Church is the largest Wesleyan church in the world, actually, and it will be a very interesting and exciting trip.

Nancy will be taking and publishing photos, and I will be blogging our trip here, at the website of our team leader, Steve Mathews.

We are praying for a safe and productive trip, of course, but even more so we are hoping and anticipating that we will see God at work in new, transformative ways, in us, our team, and in the lives of our Colombian hosts.

What are YOU doing here?!?!

This cracked me up bigtime:




From David Hayward, at nakedpastor.com.

Social Networks in Ministry

Kem Meyer, the Communications Director at Granger Community Church, has a couple of interesting recent posts on the potential role that internet-based social networking tools such as Facebook and Twitter can play in the life and dynamics of the local church.  One of them is provocatively entitled "Why is Twitter or Facebook Worth Your Time?"  This is an area of interest to me, personally, and I know it is to some of you who read my blog.  

A couple of weeks ago, our church started a Group on Facebook and we currently have just under 10% of our weekly attendance represented in this group.  Here's what is good about that. Relationship is based on communication, and Facebook has already proven that it is not merely just one more way to talk to other people in our community.  It has, in fact, shown itself to be an effective, genuinely positive way to deepen friendships, to mobilize volunteers, to connect ministry team members, to disseminate news and prayer requests of mutual interest, and, generally, to enable participants to "share life" in a new way and with greater immediacy than is available through other means.  I know of at least one case where members who did not previously know each other become "friends" on Facebook, and then turn that virtual relationship into an actual relationship.

btw, I stole the graphic from Kem's website.

Facebook gets personal

Okay, so Facebook's idea of a clever advertising strategy is to put an ad like this on my Profile page:

48 and Overweight?

 

Fat burning green tea will get you in shape! Try it free.

Just pay shipping!

Of course, clicking on the above ad takes me to a webpage that describes in hyperbolic detail the life-changing effect that green tea tablets will have on my physique and pysche.  And it's free!  Just pay shipping!

Now, I ask you, what makes them think that I want to be insulted on my own Facebook page? Obviously, since I gave them my date of birth on signup, they are using that information to attempt a devious ploy.  I wonder what would have happened if I told them I was 103, would I still get the same invitation?  What percentage of 48-year olds have (or want) abs like this, do you think? And what other information from my profile are they bending to their nefarious marketing purposes?

Admittedly, I'm not built like I was 25 years ago when my metabolism first started winding down to it's present crawl, but I am still reasonably healthy and able-bodied for a geezer.  It is worthwhile to note, also, that is not only circumference, softness, and a general weathering that comes with age, but also at least a modicum of wisdom and understanding about the world. Two things I know: Green tea does not produce six-pack abs (see Buddha), and more importantly, if God intended for 48-year old men to have abs like that he would not have blessed the earth with pasta.  

Amen.

Facebook

I just joined Facebook.  

Against my better judgement.

What was I thinking?

UPDATE:  With a link to my actual Facebook profile.  Who knew there were other people with my name on Facebook?  Imposters, all of them.

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Cabinet of Wonders

This blog regularly lives up to it's name.

I found yesterday's post completely absorbing.

Pioneer Woman and Chex Mix

When I was a kid, my Mom would always make Chex Mix at Christmas time. Always from scratch and always the classic recipe that you can find almost anywhere, including on the Chex cereal boxes. It is one of the most intense synaesthetic memories of my youth. The smell of this stuff cooking is almost as good as the taste when it's done. Now, of course, you can make this any time of the year, but it is really best at Christmas. It just is.

And whatever that dreck is that they sell prepackaged in the stores nowadays and call Chex Mix? That ain't it. It takes about $25 groceries to do it right, but it is worth it.

Here is a link to a great version of this recipe, complete with pictures and detailed instructions on a blog called The Pioneer Woman Cooks. This is a sub-blog, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Confessions of a Pioneer Woman blog which is authored by this crazy woman that lives on a ranch out on the Oklahoma prairie somewhere. She is an incredible photographer, a very entertaining writer, and, by all evidences, a fabulous cook. She's got a lot going on and her blog is extremely popular with some posts generating thousands of comments. Yeesh.

I'm going to be making up a big batch of this stuff this weekend to take to church and I will be including PW's secret ingredient in mine, too. Yum.

Drive-by Blog Entry

Just checking in... some scattershot thoughts, notes, and activities.

First, it's freakin' winter here today. No snow, yet, but it is 25 degrees, counting the wind chill. And it is gusting at 40mph. Time to yank the A/C window units and actually do that weatherstripping project I've been thinking about for the last month.

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My brother has a blog. It is in this cool community site that his church has launched. It is sort of like a Facebook-style social networking thing. When I get time, I'm going to learn more about it and see if it might work at our church, too. I jointed their community yesterday so that I could post snide comments and random jibes, and I really like the vibe and feel of it. Check him out and read about his self-diagnosed obsessive-compulsive approach to writing (or not-writing). Heh.

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Today I am neck deep in putting together a training presentation on A/V systems for worship that I will be conducting at a local church this evening. I'm looking forward to it. I used to do this kind of thing a lot, some 10 years ago or so. Training volunteers in this area of ministry is very satisfying. It is a balance of 50% basic audio technical info and 50% relational servant/leadership info.

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At church this past weekend, my son Jordan, with our worship team, led a song during the offertory called "The Blessing", by John Waller. The response of the congregation was astounding and inexplicable. He did do a great job, playing piano and singing, and it is an effective, powerful song, expertly arranged by our worship director. But the outpouring of emotion surprised us all. Jordan has played on our teams for years and is a very gifted musician, but this is the first time he sang the lead as a soloist. That was really the only difference this week and, still, that doesn't explain the weeping, the effusive affirmations, the hugs from strangers, the people calling us at 7:15 AM the next day just to tell us how moved they were by that song. Nancy, who works at our church, said staff and congregants alike were all still talking about it on Monday.

The funny thing is, JP actually didn't even know for sure that he was singing that song until last Friday, the day before the first service. Also, Nancy and I have always known he could sing and play, so we just assumed that he would give it his best shot and that he'd probably do well. He does have a knack for that. Sure, we were proud of him but, honestly, for us, it was kind of routine. As a family, that's kind of what we do and have always done...we go, we play and sing, we worship. And then we do it again next week.

But there was something different this time. The Kid was at the nexus of some kind of spiritual watershed event, I think. I don't have the answers, but I am intensely curious about what God is doing and what He is planning, both in the life of my son and in the life of our church.

I hope to have a video clip in a couple of days and, if I can figure out how, I'll post it.

Statistical Analysis and Tommy Walker

I very rarely look at my blog stats. I go for months at a time forgetting that I have a counter and I always have to look up my password to get into the Statcounter site. Honestly, if I were interested in racking up hits or tracking who was reading, this would be a totally different kind of joint around here. I like hearing from my friends, and I've met several folks through blogging whose friendships I really value. But beyond that, I just don't care whether I'm popular or not.

But one aspect of my blog statistics does intrigue me. It is interesting to me that the most popular keyword phrase that time and again seem to direct people to my blog are "when I don't know what to do". It refers to this post, wherein I talk a little about one of my favorite Tommy Walker songs. I imagine that the people typing that phrase into their search engine have heard this song somewhere and it has resonated with them in a certain way. Most people don't actually read my post, and nobody actually leaves a comment. But that's okay.

That song bears an especially penetrating message of hope, in a world largely adrift in desperation and hopelessness. I am more than happy to do my small part keeping that message afloat.

Offeratory

BEAT PHARMACY

This weekend is our church's Fallfest/Friend Day celebration. One of the cool things I get to do this weekend, in addition to hosting a Blogging 101 demonstration table tomorrow, is to perform another spoken word piece, not unlike the one I blogged about back in February. I am doing it for the offertory.

This time I am using a slightly expanded version of the poem (it's not a poem, but I don't know what else to call it) that I posted here. For the musical underscore, I am using an edited version of Beat Pharmacy's tune, "The Monkey's Wedding" from their album Earthly Delights which sounds distinctly irreligious and, in fact, thematically has absolutely nothing to do with my poem. However, the percolating techno groove, with the hardcore funky wah-wah guitar part, the dreamy piano and muted jazz trumpet, captures a vibe that just seemed to fit. I did it for tonight's Contemporary service and it was reasonably well received (and by that I mean there was clapping). I will do it both for both Contemporary and ReMix services tomorrow.

So far, I haven't been able to wrangle the resources necessary to post original, homegrown videos to my blog. We'll see if that's going to be possible this time. If you are into techno, be sure to click on the link above and go to Beat Pharmacy's website. You can hear some great stuff there.

Oh, yeah...I'm the expert

Every year our church puts on a community outreach event called "Summerfest" or "Fallfest", depending on the season. The emphasis is typically on fun, food, and family and there is usually some theme intended to inspire curiousity and interest. This year's activities were originally entitled "Technology for Dummies" until we found out that is a trademarked moniker that is restricted. So the name has been changed to something else, but we are still going to have a kind of technology fair featuring a variety of "stations" where different aspects of consumer electronics, computers, and other technology are showcased in some fashion.

Proving once again that an "expert" is someone who knows only the slightest bit more than the guy next to him, I will be running a booth devoted to blogging. Basically, I will provide a 15-minute introduction to what it is and how to do it. Then I'll pass out a 1-page hand-out and take questions. This will go on for a couple of hours, I guess, and it should be fun. Obviously, I am really not an expert, but it will be worthwhile and fun. I intend to simply show how easy it is to create a blog and discuss some of the enjoyable aspects of blogging.

Heck, it could be a lot worse. Thankfully, I'm not going to be in one of the really difficult booths, like the one where they'll teach you how to set the clock on your VCR/DVR.

Just Because I Can...

I am sitting in a seminar with Nancy's computer at the Willow Creeks Art Conference entitled "Got Blog", conducted by Kem Meyer. She is really doing a delightful job, covering many aspects of blogging, from basics to advanced. So far, every session I've attended has been excellent and this one has really been highly informative and a lot of fun.