Name Your Price II - Church, Faith and Theology Books

As Nicole and I are starting to pack up to move to our new home we continue to unclutter our bookshelves and you can benefit. This is Name Your Price - Round 2.

Name your price on any or all of the books that you can find here - http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pRDjTt3QKYSm_9L3uNCYmQw

Send me an email at andrew . conard (at) cor . org with “Name Your Price” in the subject line. Include the titles that you want and your offer price. I will send you a money request for the amount that you name via PayPal (you do not need to have used PayPal before) All I ask is that the price that you offer will cover shipping.

Enjoy!

Finish It - Local Church (1 of 5)

This series is about your thoughts. Each day I will post a sentence starter and invite you to finish it with a comment.

I dream that my local church…

Last Chance!

This is the last chance to Name Your Price on Church, Faith and Theology Books. My loss is your gain.

What is proper church attire?

I received the following email from a Resurrection attender last month. I have included my response below and some additional thoughts. They have each been edited for anonymity.

Email Received:
Has Pastor Adam ever broached the subject with the congregation on appropriate attire when attending church? I imagine that this is a rather sticky subject, to say the least. When I was leaving church yesterday, I noticed two teenage girls walking out in front of me. Even though it was cold outside one of these girls had on extremely – and I mean extremely - short shorts that bordered on vulgar. WHERE ARE THE PARENTS???!!! I hope you don’t think I’m a prude because I try to be open-minded and accepting of other people……as I think about it, though, maybe that’s why teenagers wear clothing that’s inappropriate for the occasion because we’ve all tried to be so accepting. Go figure.

My response:
Thanks for your email. To my knowledge, Adam has not talked publicly about public attire while I have been here at Resurrection. I understand your concern. I agree that some clothing may be less appropriate for public. In this and other issues, I think that there is a balance between accepting people where they are and holding them accountable. My hope is that as a congregation we are holding each other most accountable to their journey of knowing, loving and serving God toward becoming a deeply committed Christian. How this journey applies to clothing style, as you witnessed, is interpreted differently by different persons.

Further Thoughts:
I have found that the question of attire is not limited to teenagers or those for whom parents may still feel responsible. I feel that the question of the interaction between parent and student is another issue.

As I have thought more about what is appropriate to wear to church, I am not too excited about having a dress code for what is allowed and what is not allowed from someone that is a part of the worshipping congregation. I think that one’s standards for dress while worshipping should not be less than standards for dress in any other public space. Whether they should be higher or different in some way is an open question for me.

What do you think?

Name Your Price - Church, Faith and Theology Books

I am uncluttering my bookshelves and you can benefit. Name your price on any or all of the books that you can find here - http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pRDjTt3QKYSm_9L3uNCYmQw

Send me an email at andrew.conard (at) cor . org with “Name Your Price” in the subject line. Include the titles that you want and your offer price. I will send you a money request for the amount that you name via PayPal. All I ask is that the price that you offer will cover shipping.

Enjoy!

young pastors’ network

I heard about the young pastors’ network yesterday and am thinking about putting in an application. From the website:

Young Pastors’ Network

…a partnership between the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection and Ginghamsburg Church.

The Young Pastors’ Network is designed specifically for high capacity clergy within the United Methodist Church who are under the age of 35. Network candidates must be nominated by their bishops based on each candidate’s potential and drive to serve as a future leader of a large membership church within the annual conference.

Another project with great potential for renewal within the denomination. This is really exciting! It feels like the movement of God’s Spirit.

Guest Blog - Taste Test: Coke or Pepsi

This is a guest post from a Christian named bart.

Do you remember the days of the blind taste test? There would be a table with a can of Coke and a can of Pepsi and the tester would try to guess which was which or which was better or something like that. I wonder how John Wesley would fair in such a test? Imagine we:

1. Built a time machine
2. Blindfolded and transported Wesley to the year 2008
3. Removed the sign in front of a random UMC
4. Removed the blindfold and let John hang out for a week or so
5. Then we ask him to determine if he had been at an Anglican or Methodist church

I would guess his analysis might go something like this:
“The distinguishing marks of a Methodist are not his opinions of any sort,” (Character of a Methodist). The method is what distinguishes us so let us look there first. I will ask these questions allowing me to discern the answer.

1. Do these people wish to flee from the wrath to come?
2. Do they meet in small groups (class-meetings) weekly for examination of the state of their heart?
3. Do they seek to do no harm, do all the good they can to all the people they can, and keep the Ordinances of God?
4. Is this movement clearly lay lead?
5. And finally do they avoid superfluidity of dress (were fancy clothes (1 Tim 2:9))?

How would Wesley judge your church??

Emergent Church - Does anyone care?

I really resonate with Jared’s post - Emerging Boredom. I have lost a lot of enthusiasm for what has variously been known as the emerging movement, emergent, emerging church - whatever terminology you wish to use. I have tangibly seen this transition in my annual goals which included reading books and visits to churches who would claim to be doing church in a new way.

Now don’t get me wrong, I am passionate about renewal within The United Methodist Church and within the church universal. However, I have lost interest in particular authors and the emergent, emerging, emersion “brand”. This has partially been influenced by my friend, Ben, but I have also seen the development within myself over the past 18 months. I am more excited about solid leadership and renewal of the fervor and discipline of early Methodism within the denomination and throughout the state of Kansas (my particular context).

What do you think?

Google Checkout and the Church

Giving through Google Checkout is a great short post on the Official Google Blog about giving to non profit facilitated online. This post along with Making it Easier for People to Tithe from Tim Stevens makes me think - of course, enable online giving for people in faith communities.

Here at Resurrection, we use Electronic Funds Transfer as an automated way of giving, but we do not currently support online giving. This year we placed our estimate of giving card online which is a step in that direction. Some have wondered about the participatory nature of giving as an act of worship. Is this taken away when one gives online or it is automatically withdrawn? We did recently place cards in the seat back in the worship space for an EFT Offering - so that those who have a donation automatically withdrawn can physically participate in worship.