Apomo

Carolyn brought a map we’d printed on the blueprint copier at Kinkos that she’d aged to look really old. It was awesome! It look fabulous. So we decided to have her do all the posters and graphics for our foyer and cafe area in the same style. One guy brought a pair of roller derby skates he bought for a steal and Russ demonstrated his roller skating skills to all of our amusement leaving black skid marks on the floor when he tried to stop. Then Judy told a story about how God sent an angel to her in the form of a German Shepherd to help guard her as she loaded up alone in a parking lot late one night. After an awkward pause Russ said “Wow, that’s cool.” and then asked her to open the meeting in prayer. haha.

I gave a short talk on the whole concept of post modernism and how the modern church adapted itself to the modern era and how the pomo church would be wise to follow suit and adapt ourselves to a pomo era. Talked about pomo a little and gave the underlying theory behind the methodology of having experiential, participatory, image driven, community centered events that are full sensory worship. Russ and I thought it was important to put the event in context so that they could understand it’s not something we’re doing just to be cool and different. We wanted them to understand it’s importance in the full scheme of things.

Then we went through the labyrinth process and brainstormed and collaborated for about two hours or so. From an IBM perspective it was a messy, disjointed, unorganized mess of a meeting. But it’s art, and art isn’t a science. There was alot of rabbit chasing and irrelevant talk but Russ and I would interject a question or observation here and there getting the conversation back on track to the labyrinth. We tried to serve more as facilitators and hosts rather than film director types shaping everything to our own personal vision of things. Our goal was to make it a TEAM thing instead of a Brian/Russ thing. Collaboration was what we were looking for. It seemed to work because they all came up with some really good ideas that we could have never thought of on our own. Plus, now it’s THEIR project, not ours and they’ll make it happen.

Without any forethought the meeting somehow broke up into two groups. A couple people decided to play foosball and had themselves a spirited game going while the rest of us brainstormed. Which was cool. I’m not really sure what the other group was talking about but ours bandied about several ideas about how to actually put some of the ideas to work and we agreed on a basic plan of action for each member to do this next week. The conversation then somehow got turned to the philosophical stuff I’d talked about at the opening of the meeting and we all talked about that for awhile and it was pretty good conversation.

Everybody had stuff at home in their garage or attic they wanted to bring and everybody had personal ideas for various parts of the project. So we told everybody to gather all that stuff and we’d meet again on Oct.9, after church, and have our first build out day with the goal to erect the walls around the spaces and to roughly place the props in the rooms. Then we agreed to go from there and figure out the next work day/night and what we need to accomplish on that night. A far cry from the ultra-organized affairs I’m accustomed to putting together which practically have minute to minute schedules and analy minutely detailed to-do task lists. This whole collaboration thing is a paradigm change for me. But it’s a better way of doing things.

Even so, I think we need a little more structure in our meetings. I think the way to do that is to give the objectives and basic process of the meeting up front in order to give it some form and keep the seemingly aimless artisitic wandering within the general outlines of the objectives. Alot of confusion and misunderstanding, which led to some time wasted on unnecessary talk, would have been avoided if we had said “Here’s what we’re hoping to accmoplish tonight. Brian is going to talk for about five minutes, then Russ is going to go through the Labyrinth showing you the technical side of it, then we’ll go through each space and talk about it. Then we’ll talk about our schedule and make an overall project plan.” Russ and I knew all this in our heads, but we didn’t really communicate it to them and people were jumping ahead and going back when we could have kept it on track by outlining the objectives up front. It wouldn’t have hurt the collaboration I don’t think. For instance, there were times people were trying to talk about stuff to do in the stations when they really didn’t know yet what the station was about. Another time Judy expressed grave concern about us falling into the trap of Goya which evidently is nature worship. But she hadn’t understood yet how Christ centerd the Labryrinth is. We would avoided some of that by being a little more organized in our presentation and heading these confusions off at the pass. Live and learn.

The meeting concluded when Judy gave a “word of knowledge” to Don which left Don scratching his head and the rest of us staring awkwardly at our shoes. Judy’s a sweetheart and very talented artistically, but a little eccentric at times. If she weirds people out we’ll just whisper  “She’s an artist!” and give them a conspiratorial wink. Hopefully they’ll get it. haha.]]>

I see it in politics, I’ve seen it in the business world, and I’ve seen it in the church. Even when you go to “leadership” conferences and read “leadership” books they basically tell wannabe leaders how to do this. “It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it that matters!” and it’s called wisdom.

But, at the risk of sounding arrogant and condescending myself (I cop to the charge), I’ve seen it happen. Politicians, sports figures, and cultural leaders do outrageous, unethical, illegal, and stupid things and the public buy the spin crap that follows and it seems they get off scott free. Or they flat out use people and manipulate the masses to their own personal gain and the people love ‘em for it. Are people really that stupid and gullible? I almost hate to say it, but I think they are.

How else would people buy into the schlock that Madison Ave puts out? Evidently it works because business spends cajillions on innane advertising campaigns…campaigns that work.  How else could politicians constantly tell the same lies and promise the same false promises campaign after campaign and then change so little and we buy into their excuses as they blame “the opposition” for their failures? How else can preachers get away with building their own kingdoms and fiefdoms in the name of God and the people love them for it? How else do we justify the unbelievable behavior of pop stars and sports figures? It just goes on and on.

The machine feeds us lies and we live on them. It’s amazing. The people only have themselves to blame for the mess we’re in. Me included. Until we stand up to their spinning images and say “Gimme a break! What a crock of horse hockey! You’re a bum! Accept responsibility and do the right thing!” they’ll keep working their agenda and feeding us the bullshit. 

Maybe we like it that way. Now there’s something to ponder. Why would we like it that way?]]>

I find this shituation humorous to watch unfold. The White House’s support of the Majority Leader is tepid at best. And Delay’s spinners are trying to say it’s a personal vendetta on the part of the prosecutor, a Dem. Did the prosecutor indict Delay or did a grand jury? I think it was a grand jury. Correct me if I’m wrong.

Nancy Pelosi, Dem from my beloved Left Coast, said that this indictment “…is the latest example that Republicans in Congress are plagued by a culture of corruption at the expense of the American people.” Careful there Mrs. Nancy, that sword swings both ways.

]]>

We leave for Catalyst in one week!]]>

(My parents will be here for the preview. As life-long UPC ministers, I hope they don’t freak out. haha.)

Only seven more days until we fly to Catalyst! Yehaw!]]>

2) Was parked at a stop light yesterday. Noticed an old man standing at the crosswalk talking to himself. “Crazy koot.”, I thought disparagingly. He waved at a couple of black girls driving by in a red sports car and yelled something at them. They laughed and waved back. He turned my direction and started talking to me through a wrinkled up old mouth void of teeth. I studiously ignored him. “Damn this light is long!”, I thought to myself. He kept waving his arms and talking at me real loud. Not wanting to be obvious in my rudeness, I rolled down the window.

“…wonderful day!”, I heard him say.

“What’s that?”, I asked, my nose pointed resolutely toward where my heavenly mansion is being built.

“I hope you have a wonderful day!”, he repeated.

“Uh. Thanks. You too!” I answered giving him a thumbs up and a smartass grimace I hoped was a smile. He gave me a wide, gummy grin back.

“Yes sir! I’m having a fabulous day. It’s all about the attitude! If you and me can have a good attitude we’ll have a good day. If you and me have a good day every day then we can change the whole world and the whole world can have a good day!”, he yelled across the street.

I didn’t know what to say. Just looked at him. Maybe he wasn’t so crazy after all. As I drove away he gave me another toothless grin and a double thumbs up.

3) Talked to Provoked yesterday on the phone. Sounds like they missed the worst of Rita. I’m glad to hear that. Hope my other friends are ok too.]]>

1)  A quote from the keynote speaker at a local leadership prayer breakfast jointly sponsored by local churches and the chamber of commerce, “Jesus was probably the greatest CEO of all time!”.  I’m not sure if I’m more perturbed by the notion that Jesus was a CEO or the implication that someone else is “probably” a better one. 
 
2) Walt Disney is promoting it’s films in churches now. They’re offering free pre-screenings of “family value” films to large churches, like Gibson did w/his film “Passion of the Christ”. Have churches been so co-opted by capitalistic, anti-family values companies like Disney that they’ll allow themselves to be pimped for immoral and commerical purposes? Evidently so.

3) The headline said that Rita took a turn to the East sparing Houston but Galveston will take a direct hit. The first paragraph though said that Galveston would be spared too. Nice editing. Reminds me of some of my posts. One the one hand, I’m glad it appears my Houston area friends will be spared the worst of it. On the other hand though, I feel bad feeling good about that because I know that other people will be devestated. On my third hand, I hope Rita will lose strength and peter out. That’s what to pray for I guess.

P.S. Stayed up late last night finishing “Radical Son” by David Horowitz. Overall a good book, worth the read. I have mixed feelings about the author yet I feel the book vindicates my own view somewhat regarding politics, socialism, and conservatism. CC, is that good enough review or do I need to write more? ]]>

I hope all bodes will with my friends in South Texas the next few days. Stay warm and dry. All of you are in my prayers.]]>

Where to have it? At the church or at a coffee shop? The youth room is set up like a small cafe’ with contemporary ambience, pool table, drink bar, small stage and even cafe type tables and chairs. But will having it at the church be too churchy?

What to talk about? We could talk current events and tie them loosely to spiritual themes, i.e. Topic: “Hurricane Katrina had a psychological impact on Americans and re-exposed the predujices (real, imagined, or exaggerated?) of American society. It also revealed the good side of Americans where neighbors are helping neighbors. Jesus said to love your neighbor. We can talk about either side of the issue.” Or we could talk about more overtly biblical, spiritual themes like Draven seems to do with his talks on NT Wrights lectures.

Is this a “stepping stone” to something else? Is it a part of other things combined to make up our “church”? 

We talked about maybe doing the talks three weeks in a row and then once a month or so having a potluck type thing and calling it the “Lords Supper” and have communion. We’d have live music and just have a night to hang out. 

Ideas. Floating in the mind. Hopeful for the future.

Hmmmm…. just had another idea. We could develop a website and have a chatroom for people to chat about the topic during the week and to keep the conversation going.

 ]]>

Russ is going to Catalyst with me. Way cool.

Got my copy of “Radical Son” by David Horowitz today. I hadn’t planned on adding to my reading list just yet but I couldn’t resist CC’s request. I’m not sure how to write a book review but I guess I’ll give it shot.]]>