Church Out of Church

I don't intend to use this e-bully pulpit to do a lot of bragging about my little old church, but...

Paul does say something about "provoking one another to good deeds." And since Church Out of Church (COOC, as it's affectionately known..) was someone else's idea, I feel like I can be Clay the Proud Pastor. So here goes my ecclesial provocation:

Each time there's a 5th Sunday in a month (like, say, today - November 30th) the good folks of my church gather for a short worship service then head into the community, to be Church (people) Out of Church (building). We rake leaves, clean gardens, prepare emergency food bags - all kinds of stuff that reaches out beyond our walls.

We do other stuff on other days as well, but COOC does two things, methinks. Uno, it reminds us that we are called to be more than really holy people holed up in a really holy place. Stained glass is nice, but grass-stained knees are better. Two-o, it invites our folks to think about places they can serve throughout the year. What begins on a 5th Sunday builds into something larger, mehopes.

Just thinking aloud, but what if every church did something similar - once a quarter (month? week? day? Holy carp! When would we have time for meetings?) we went and served our community - no gimmicks, no obligations, no donations accepted? Glitzy commercials and billboards for church might be important, but.... well, who knows? I'm sure Jesus would be all for gltizy commercials.

much love, much peace, etc.
Clay

No cell phone, but a blog?

Welcome.

I've been thinking for a little while about starting a blog. And then today, my VBFFITWWW Johnny Flemmons sends an email saying, "Hey check out my new blog!" And, obviously, I want to be like Johnny Flemmons, so this was more than enough for me to actually start a blog for my very own self.

So, I signed up at blogspot, picked a blog format (from a wide variety of, like, 8!), and now I have a blog. Which is weird.

I have never owned a cell phone and I hope to die having never owned a cell phone. (Although, honestly, this seems unlikely. I suspect that the day is coming when we no longer think of them as "cell phones," but as just "phones." There won't be any other kind: "Wires? Why would you have a phone attached to wires???")

I don't Twitter, I have an abandoned MySpace page for our Campus Ministry (someone else is keeping it up now, I think...), and I don't have any kind of PDA/Crackberry. I don't own an i-Anything. I have a slighly anti-technology/Luddite bent. (Although, I am on Facebook, which is also weird, so maybe I'm not as anti-tech as I like to think: "Oh-hoo, look who knows so much! As it happens, your friend is only mostly-Luddite..."*)

And on top of that, I'm a pastor at a church, which means once a week I stand up in front of people and get to talk at them for 10 or 15 (and sometimes 20....) minutes. I write a monthly newsletter that gets sent to something like 170 homes. In church meetings, I get the privilege of speaking most often and with the most authorty. (I'm not sure it should be that way, but it is.) People sometimes call me and ask me what I think about an important issue in their lives. As a pastor, I have plenty of opportunities to communicate my thoughts to any number of people.

So why does technological skepticism + already ample opportunity for self-expression = "I need a blog?"

I wish I had a good answer. But the best that I can come up with is this two-fold stab in the dark: (1) maybe I can blog about stuff that doesn't fit into sermons or newsletters and (2) maybe this will connect me with folks that aren't in my somewhat geographically-and-worldview-limited circle. I hope that if I do connect with folks outside of said circle, it will be conversationally rather than monologically. (Yes, monologically. "Check out the big brain on Clay!"**)

So, I'm going to blog and see what happens. Maybe nothing. Maybe a world-wide revolution for peace, love and sarcasm, with my writing providing both the inspiration and the idealogical underpinnings. Probably (hopefully) something in between.

I have a blog and a Facebook page. Can a cell phone be far behind? Dear Lord, I hope not.

much peace, much love, etc.
Clay

PS - Johnny Flemmons' blog can be found at http://www.revjohnf.blogspot.com/. He has a better format than me.

*I'd like to think that I'm too cool to drop movie references in my conversations or writing, but I'm not. The Princess Bride seems to pop up a lot.

**Pulp Fiction pops up some, too. Well, Samuel L. Jackson quotes do, anyway.