Hi There

A belated Merry Christmas and Happy new Year to all out in the blogosphere. It has been a whirlwind couple of weeks for me. I'm proud and excited to announce that my son, Michael was born on December 26. He was a happy and healthy 7lb 2oz baby boy and continues to grow and amaze me every day. Mom and baby are both home and healthy, and I really couldn't ask for anything more. I hope your holidays were just as amazing!

My thoughts today revolve around spiritual and religious expression. How do you express your faith? I've never been one to wear my faith on my sleeve but I get the impression that people still know i"m a faithful person. Any time I mention that I work at a church when hanging out at any more secular establishment (read: the Pub) it's nearly inevitable that a religious type conversation strikes up.

I don't have a problem with that, but it has occurred to me that I've done more church at a bar than I have at church. This brings me to my brainstorming about expressing our faith. Some people find it very personal, but i believe that being in community with other believers is how we grow and how our  faith is informed. So what is your way? Can you find real church and real expressions of faith in completely secular settings? Let me know friends. How do you express yourself as faithful people grounded in the real world?

Cheers, Mike!

prayer

So prayer is kind of a big deal. I've been working on improving my prayer life. For several years now it's been shaky at best. What are your favorite prayers? Do you have prayer you say every day? Here's Luther's Morning Prayer that he would say every day. I read/pray it pretty frequently. Im always amazed at how connected some people are/have been to their own spirituality. Gives me something to shoot for.

LUTHER'S MORNING PRAYER

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

I thank you, my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, Your dear Son, that You have kept me this night from all harm and danger; and I pray that You would keep me this day also from sin and every evil, that all my doings and life may please You.  For into Your hands I commend myself, my body and soul, and all things.  Let Your holy angel be with me, that the evil foe may have no power over me.  Amen.

Called

So @FranciscanChris challenged us this week in his sermon. He made a statement that was both simple and infinitely complex. He said that God has called everyone to change the world. Simple enough, until he asked us what we were going to do about it. Go out, he said, and change the world. It can be something small, something huge, or anywhere in between, but we are called by god to go out and change the world.

This reminds me of the Buried Life show on MTV. A group of four guys got together and wrote a list of things they wanted to do before they die. Each week on the show they set out to cross something off the list, and as they do they help someone else cross something off their list. Changing the world in the name of Christ isn't exactly the same as a bucket list but there is a certain similarity in the mission. Every day millions of people just go about their life. Just live. Get through this week til we get a little break in the weekend then back to the grind, later, rinse, repeat. But there is more to it than that, and I'm constantly searching for what that means. So Chris' sermon inspired in me more drive to find that.

So what am I going to do about it? I don't know yet. It would be easy to say my wife and I bought a hybrid to reduce our carbon footprint and save the planet, but honestly it was a decision made more by economics than anything else. I could say that I'm preparing myself and my family for the upcoming birth of our son but lots of people have kids. And while bringing a little me into the world will certainly have an impact, I'm looking for something more. Something bigger.

So I'm opening this up to my little corner of the interwebs. How would you answer this challenge. What are your ideas? dreams? Where do you see the church and the world meeting and what needs are there? Help me out on this, we could be on to something big here.

Cheers, Mike.

Just for Fun

What were you for halloween? What factored into you picking your costume?

Goals

I've made an observation about this fledgling postmodern Lutheran experiment. Lutherans are very reluctant to join the technological revolution. I've seen some of the most basic twitter users and the occasional good blog or two, but why aren't we digging deeper? Why aren't we using these tools to make ministry better? How many of your have your church listed on foursquare?

Aside from that, how are we making our worship experiences as innovative as the world around us? I consider myself as a person/minister called to stand at the intersection of the church and the world. If that is the case how can i reconcile being a part of a tradition so stuck in the past? It is my mission to find out if I can still be completely Lutheran and postmodern at the same time. In doing so I have a couple of goals.
1. Utilize technological advances at any opportunity.
2. Expand the priesthood of all believers to actually include all believers.
3. Reach out to a variety of ecumenical partners, not just Lutherans.
4. Continually broaden my education, even if it means being uncomfortable.

What do you think of the list friends? What would you add/remove? Im very interested in everybody's opinion on these matters. Post your comments and we'll talk soon!

Mike.

innovation

I wonder sometimes if our technological advances in the church are limited to twitter, facebook, and a clover site webpage. Don't get me wrong, I think all of these things are very useful. I've been on facebook and twitter already today, and I love the site we've built through clover. But is that all?

What other areas of technology can we use in the church? I believe innovation is good for God's church. I believe that I am called to be on the cutting edge of the church's technological revolution. But it seems that there should be more options. What are you using? What else is out there? Which direction do I need to look?

 mike.

Artists part 2

I had an interesting conversation today at the Center. It's interesting on two fronts because to me it is a delicate balance between post modern church and Christendom as well as a balance between artistic and more practical people. This is a slight on neither, just observation and hopefully a conversation starter.

I had suggested that we invite artists in our congregation to take part in our worship by adding their art in whichever capacity that meant. We've been good at recruiting new singers to add their ministry, but what about the artists that used other mediums. the painters sculptors poets dancers etc. And the conversation came up, what if it doesn't match the vision of our congregation?

This is a fair question. What if a given person's artistic vision didn't match that of our congregation. It would be insulting to turn away their gift and that could cause a rift/division that could be harmful to that persons relationship with the church. But on the other side of the coin it would be difficult as a person working at the church to lift up something that didn't fit along with the vision of the church.

The other interesting aspect is those in our congregation that are more traditionalist and interested in becoming "just another Lutheran church." Would they outright reject any new artistic expression during worship or in our worship space?

Lots of potential issues here. I'm certain that this kind of debate has kept creative arts out of worship spaces across the world. What are your experiences with artistic expression in worship? Positive or negative experiences?

i'm going to keep pondering this a while.
 mike.