THIS BLOG IS MOVING - www.rustypants.net

hey folks:

i've spent the last week tinkering with a new website - i was looking for something to replace the old youth group site and the result is:

www.rustypants.net

there's still some kinks to knock out of it but that'll come in due time. for now, start checking over there for new posts. if you've linked me, change your links, too.

lise and i are leaving for florida early sunday morning and will be back sometime next saturday (the 26th). will be testing a feature of the new blog by blogging by phone and pocket PC.

will it work?

who knows. check here to find out!

FYI to all you bloggers out there: getting rustypants.net registered and blog-ready wasn't that difficult and was DIRT CHEAP - also registered www.scottandlise.com - both of them together (including hundreds of email accounts, gigs of web space, a blog for each one and easy to use templates for the webpages) was only $44.88 for a year. this is where we got it from.

as someone who's been putting up websites for over 10 years, this is the best deal, easiest setup and manipulation i've ever dealt with.

geez, i sound like an infomercial now.

1-800-SUICIDE in crisis

i'd heard several months ago that the 1-800-SUICIDE crisis hotline was having trouble raising money to pay their phone bill - the argument was one-sided with the non-profit hotline claiming that the federal government was reneging on a deal to fund them (and that since then, the gov't set up it's own hotline with the intent of getting personal info from the callers).

the washington post today has an article that gives it a different slant.

and what to do? the washington post is no friend of president bush and his government - they're a liberal-leaning paper that ought to be friendly to such groups as the hotline. i can only hope that maybe this is just the other side's story and that the truth lies in the middle somewhere.

i'm still supportive (and supporting) the 1-800-SUICIDE hotline and encourage you to do the same. groups like this are vital to folks needing a lifeline in the depth of horrible depression and crisis. i'd rather err on the side of caution in this case than to condemn based on a newspaper article.

NOOOOOooooooooooooo!!!!

i guess we knew it had to happen at some point.

you don't get away with selling 70,000,000 copies of a series of books (albeit theologically shaky ones), having 3 movies (albeit horribly made ones), and being on the New York Times bestsellers list over and over again without having a video game being made about said series.

one more thing to be made fun of about, i suppose.

in this article in the washington post today, a spokesman for the Christian Game Developers Foundation says:

"You can't kill people in the name of God and put it in the game play and hope it won't offend people," he said.

On the other hand, Bagley said he understands the need for a gamemaker to put in plenty of action to appeal to the market.

"There are people out there who think that if it's a Christian game, it has to be about putting two animals on an ark," he said. "But how many people are going to play that?"

my thoughts exactly.

seen around town

paid ministry dilemma and discussion continues

following my rant on God saving me from his followers, i've received a good amount of email, IM's and phone calls about the issue of church, God's people, and my situation, among other things.

one of the IM's i got was from an old friend, greg teselle. he wrote a plea for all paid ministers to resign a couple months ago and i think it's worth taking a look at.

i'll take his argument a step further, in fact.

long before the fiasco at my previous church occurred, i had been struggling with the concept of paid ministry.

why?

1. the church gets cheapened by becoming not only your "brothers and sisters" but also your "employer" - where does the line get drawn?
2. what is the standard by which ministers are then held?
a. attendance?
b. how the leadership perceives your ministry is going?
c. whether you use _________ (fill in the blank) enough times in your sermon each week
d. how many people are "saved" each year/quarter/month/week
e. number of baptisms?
f. how much is in the collection plate each week?
g. make up your own here
3. what happens when life takes a turn and the minister is unable to minister as he had before? when the minister needs ministering, will the church cut and run?
4. the pressure of pleasing the select group that must be pandered to (leadership? deacons? elders? the founding family of the church? the biggest contributor?) means that you've already knocked out the Holy Spirit's guidance. (this is NOT an indictment on all churches or my saying that all churches i've worked with or attended have been run this way)

in essence: church becomes a business. it becomes less about the grace of God and becomes more about a set of man-made standards that are arbitrarily made and/or followed.

this isn't always true, and i freely admit that there are a large number of churches out there that are doing fantastic ministry without petty squabbles, money-related issues, factions engaged in behind-the-scenes wrangling, ministers with wrong motives, etc.

but i wonder: if paid ministers quit, what would happen? would the church suddenly take notice that they had a responsibility that goes beyond warming pews and dropping a dollar in the plate on Sunday mornings? would the sheep stand up and lead? and would the goats scatter?

what's my experience in this area? i was the volunteer youth minister at a couple churches over the course of 10 years. over the last 4-5 years, i've been on staff as the paid youth minister. i've seen both sides and frankly, i can't imagine going into paid ministry again. my vision as of the summer of 2005 was to go to grad school, get my master's degree in special ed, quit as the paid youth minister and continue as the youth minister in a volunteer capacity.

so: is there a solution?

i think the model greg is trying with his church, shale harbor, is a good start. root around a little bit and look at what they're doing.

check out this article from last Sunday's washington post talking about alternate forms of worship pursued by folks who are tired/burned out on the traditional church model.

read george barna's book, "Revolution: Burned Out On Church? Finding vibrant faith beyond the walls of the sanctuary." i'm part way through it now, and as barna is probably the biggest statistics dude out there in evangelical america, he's got a lot to say on shifting perceptions in the traditional church business.

i'm encouraged by the things i see happening.

but i'm still shopping for a good jockstrap.

freakin me out, dude!

i've gotta tell you: the whole 'talking website avatar' thing freaks the crap out of me.

i first ran into this a couple months ago on a website by a dude calling himself a web evangelist. not only was i freaked out, i figured it had to be a joke. why would anyone seeking Jesus want to be weirded out by a fake cartoon "person" "talking" to them and eyes following your cursor all over the place?

and as a secondary issue: when you claim to be wanting to help Christians evangelize the web, your own site has to be something that people would want to look at. this internetminister.org site is VERY poorly put together and looks about 6-7 years out of date (which, as the joke goes, is about how far behind most christians are with the rest of the world anyway). i still can't tell if the guy is serious based on the poor quality of his images, content, grammar and knowledge of what the typical web surfer looks at and pursues.

at any rate, please: trash the avatars.

politics as usual

politics has always interested me and caused me to laugh.

Rep. Jean Schmidt has bought an Ethanol-burning vehicle.

why? to fight terrorism, of course!

Schmidt's opponent in this election, Victoria Wulsin, says: Schmidt's not being sincere.

Schmidt: Look at me! I'm fighting terrorism!
Wulsin: You're not sincere!
Schmidt: Oh yeah? You should practice what you preach!
Wulsin: Fine!! If elected, I'll ride my bike!!
Schmidt: Hah!! If I'm re-elected, I'll walk!
Wulsin: Nuh-uh!!
Schmidt: Uh-huh!!
Wulsin: Nuh-uh!!
Schmidt: Uh-huh!!
Wulsin: Oh yeah!?! Well, if I'm elected, I'll walk, too, and I'll walk UPHILL both ways!!
Schmidt: Well.. well, whatever!! If I'm re-elected I'll walk both ways uphill AND through five feet of snow!
Wulsin: Liar!
Schmidt: Am not!
Wulsin: Are too!! I'll walk uphill both ways, through five feet of snow and... and... and I'll do it without shoes!
Schmidt: Now you're being silly. Media hog!
Wulsin: Oh yeah, little miss Rep-Murtha-is-a-cut-and-run-coward!?!
Schmidt: Hey, that's not fair!
Wulsin: Oh, boo-hoo!

how silly. and we're supposed to vote for one of these clowns?

hahaha!! er, i mean: BLASPHEMY!!!

image borrowed from marriedtothesea.com,
a website that is both hilarious and quite
off-color at times. if you're sensitive to this
type of thing, don't go check it out.

100 people surveyed, top answers on the board...

Surveys typically drive me nuts - i don't see the point in answering things like, "have you ever made out? what are you wearing? who's the last person you yelled at?" but this was on someone else's blog and doggone it, here i am.

i'm a loser, i know.

1. One book that changed your life:
More Than A Carpenter by Josh McDowell
little. tiny. book. really made a huge difference in my life.

2. One book that you've read more than once:
The Stand by Stephen King
this book has done the shock-and-awe on me since reading it the first time back in high school. stunning book, maybe not a literary classic, but the vision and harrowing nature of it... dunno. have read it probably eight times in the past 16 years. while king's writing is usually hit-or-miss (and it's usually one hit, two misses, one hit, two misses) this one is right on the money.

3. One book you'd want on a desert island:
The Stories of Ray Bradbury by Ray Bradbury
100 of Bradbury's favorite stories - awesome short stories that can be read over and over. very vivid imagery.

4. One book that made you laugh:
The Umbrella Man and other stories by Roald Dahl
Dahl is an incredible storyteller. humorous, ironic, sarcastic, hilarious. i woke lise up a couple times laughing while reading this in bed over the course of a week. i fell in love with his writing as a boy (most notably, Danny, Champion of the World and James and the Giant Peach) and as an old man i still find him to be a riot.

5. One book that made you cry:
Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury
probably my favorite book of all time. the melancholy sweetness of the story, the optimism found, lost and regained, the coming of age and pining for a simpler time, the realization of things lost and the marching of time - bittersweet.

6. One book you wish had been written:
Under the Bleachers by Seymour Butts

7. One book you wish had never been written:
The Silmarillion by JRR Tolkien
i've never thrashed myself so hard as i have in trying to read this book. several times over the past 25 years i'll pick it up, get 40 pages into it and put it down with a splitting headache. too much! too much!!

8. One book you're currently reading: A Great Improvisation : Franklin, France, and the Birth of America by Stacy Schiff
i've been reading a lot of history and biography this past year and a half - very strange for a guy who has read fiction 2-3 hours every night for the past 27 years. David McCullough has been at the top of the list of authors, but schiff won the Pulitzer Prize for biography with this one last year. took me two tries to get into it, but it's a good one.
9. One book you've been meaning to read:
Teacher Man by Frank McCourt
McCourt wrote a book called Angela's Ashes several years ago - i got it at sam's club cheap because the cover intrigued me. it's a stream of consciousness account of McCourt's growing up in Ireland with THE dysfunctional irish family. this is book three of his memoirs and it's been difficult to get to it with about 10 other books lined up to read...

and now, to add a few categories of my own:

10. One book that has scared the crap out of you:
Harvest Home by Thomas Tryon
this is another book that has been re-read many times and it still scares the crap out of me. it's old. it's out of print. it's worth hunting down at a used bookstore and reading it.

11. The one book that is most recommended to others by you:
Your First Two Years in Youth Ministry by Doug Fields
having done youth ministry for thirteen plus years, this is the best book out there for folks who are starting out in this ministry. fields is not my favorite writer by any stretch, but this is good for those who have no idea what they're doing or maybe just need some guidance.

QUAD...ruple bypass?

who

needs

this

much

meat

on

their

hamburger?




anybody?

mandibles of death, indeed

much has been made of the fact that my dog, dolby, has mandibles of death when it comes to toys. as an eight month old black lab, he doesn't as much "play" with toys as hunt them down and kill them.

we've decided to follow in the footsteps of Timothy Leary, who, upon learning he was dying from prostate cancer, videotaped his final dying months.

last night at 2200 hours we gave dolby the Dr. Noy's supposedly somewhat indestructible plush teddy bear toy you see to the right.

cute, isn't he?

he was, at least. by 2300 hours, the cute, somewhat indestructible teddy bear was already being torn to shreds. what follows is a pictorial review of the subsequent 25 hours. be warned: it's not for the faint of heart.

click on individual pics for clarity and hour-by-hour captions.
after spending $22.00 on two of these toys (the other was a sheep whose grisly fate was met even quicker than the bear's), not to mention incalculable amounts of money on other fun squeaky toys, i think we're just going to give dolby bricks and barbed wire to chew on and play with.

my new motto: indestructible? HAHAHAHAHAA

goodness, don't we all need to do this a bit more often?

above image came from marriedtothesea.com

and oh. my. gosh. is it a funny site.