I’m out in the yard and we are having a great turnout! hoping the rain holds off.
Month: October 2007
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3 Reasons to Embrace Halloween
While listening to our local Cheesy Christian Radio Station (WCCR) last night, folks were calling in with their spiritual reflections on why they hide from Halloween. There are mountains of people who literally go out today, rent a family movie, and hide in their house so that they can ignore the festivities of the night. (Then congratulate themselves for "surviving" another Halloween.)Last week I made my feelings clear when I posted, "We celebrate Halloween."
Here are 3 reasons why I think every Christian should embrace Halloween as a cultural phenomenon beyond personal convictions that you are endorsing evil.
- Don’t punish your kids for your convictions. We don’t let our kids dress up as demons or witches… but we do allow them to wear costumes because it’s fun. But to keep them at home, locked in the basement while you watch some cheesy Christian movie instead of getting bucket loads of candy tonight… that’s just mean. We are called to bring light into darkness not hide from darkness. (Ephesians 5:8-14) You can take your kids to your neighbors houses, keep them safe, and show them that being a Christian isn’t about hiding from the world.
- Be hospitable. I know plenty of people live in rural areas and don’t get trick-or-treaters. So you folks are exempt… for a night. But if you are like me and hundreds of kids will be walking by your house looking for a few pieces of yummy candy don’t be the jerk on you block. Head out to the store right now and get yourself a couple bags of candy. Titus 1:8 pretty much makes it clear that anyone in leadership at their church must be hospitable. Turn your light on, answer the door, and be hospitable. Even if you can’t be home tonight, leave out a bowl and turn the light on. People know what to do! (Yes, just let people steal your candy!)
- Don’t be afraid! I think a lot of this anti-Halloween stuff is based on terrible theology. The Bible tells us to resist the devil. Peter tells us to "resist him" which indicates a struggle. (1 Peter 5:8-9) But the Bible doesn’t tell Christians to hide from evil. Look at the example of Paul as he went to various towns. He encountered evil in all its forms and chose to bring Christ there.
I think the last sermon series at Romeo captured this quite well. When we make fear-based decisions in life, ones that are emotionally based, we tend to step away from the best that God has to offer. God provided His Son for salvation… for freedom from the devil. I think hiding from something as harmless as Halloween is giving the devil a foothold in your life. (Yes, I know the origins of Halloween… don’t even get me started on the origins of Christmas! The inconsistency there drives me nuts, but I’ll save that for December.)
I suppose this is why I don’t understand the Christian "ant-Halloween" mindset. If Jesus has conquered Satan, and Halloween is 99% community and 1% a recognition of Satan’s activities in the world today… why are we "hiding it under a bushel."
If you absolutely can’t bear the thought of giving people candy… don’t hide in your house. Come to mine! We’ll be giving out buckets of candy, greeting people, offering them something hot to drink, and telling them about the kids programs at church. This isn’t an activity of the church… it’s a ministry of my family to my neighborhood!
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2 proofs that the government shouldn’t blog
I find this very funny. Yes, the State Department has a blog. So citizen journalism finds it’s match at some office in Washington. Likely, some government worker collects quite a salary and made blogging sound very difficult and official sounding.
Let me give just two reasons why the State Department shouldn’t be blogging.- Proof #1: Yes, the State Department’s blog is called "Dipnote." I don’t know if people in Washington know this, but calling someone a "dip" means that you think someone is an idiot. So you could translate the name of their blog to "the idiot note." Smooth move.
- Proof #2: Don’t advertise mistakes. This week they unveiled a video made by Disney (at Disney’s expense) to show the world how wonderful the US is. Only problem, one caption shows the Canadian part of Niagara Falls. Oops. The video is below.
Now, it’s an innocent mistake. And it’s only a second or two of video… but you’ve got to make sure that a video of America actually features all of America.
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Wanna be hip? Go GREEN
The latest marketing trend is to go green. Meaning: Doing things that are good, or pseudo-good, for the environment. Terms that are popular along these lines…
– Bio-anything
– Renewable
– Carbon Footprint (offset)Coming soon to a store near you is renewable anything, bio-everything, and stuff that has negative carbon impact.
Even if you don’t buy into the global warming stuff (which I don’t) you can appreciate going away from wasteful sources of energy and resources and towards things that have less waste. Anyone who has traveled to a European country has seen little ways to eliminate packaging excesses or ways to save a little gas or heat a little less of a home. And anyone who has been in a developing country (until recently called a third world country) will see that our garbage becomes their garbage. While the United States is pretty good about hiding our wasted stuff [and Canada’s too] these developing nations simply have no way to hide the junk they produce and the junk they allow to be dumped there by Americans.
Where is the church on this issue?
Most churches are decidedly "anti-green." They simply don’t care about wasting stuff. Even worse, they are late on the bandwagon that "green" isn’t just about tree hugging wackos; it’s about normal people now, Christian and non-Christian alike, who want to make sure we don’t blow it for our kids. I really feel like being a Christian means that we need to be good manager of all that God has given us. I don’t think I want to associate myself with Greenpeace and other leftist nuts… but I am seeing and feeling a strong pull to become less of a corporate waster-of-crap.
Here are a couple of things worth considering… because it’s little things that save a lot of energy.- Consider zoned heating. Kristen and I are constantly mocked for keeping our home a little cool in the winter, especially at night. We’ve installed (and are buying more of) a little space heater that is safe and runs on almost nothing. Check this out. By running these we can keep the bedrooms nice and warm and basically turn off our forced air heating system at night. What is the point of heating rooms you won’t be in all night? We live in a 135 year old house. The house was designed for zoned heating… it’s not bad, it’s good stewardship.
- Consider driving less. I’m sick of people complaining about gas prices. If it continues to change people’s driving habits I hope a gallon of gas goes up to $5. There are two things attached to your stumps, they are called feet. You can even walk when the weather isn’t perfect and you are allowed to do it for transportation too. It may take a little longer but you’ll feel great. I know I live in Detroit and cars = jobs. But you don’t need 2-3 cars in one house. You don’t need an 8 passenger SUV for your 4 person family. You can carpool to work, school, church, small group, after school stuff. It may not be super convenient or super efficient all the time… but it is a good thing! I say this little phrase all the time and it saves me tons of gas and an extra car, "Can you drop me off at my house?" Most of our driving habits can be broken. It’s not that "you can’t" (which I hear all the time) it’s that "you won’t." If, for some reason, Kristen and I ever get enough money to replace our car… it’s bio-deisel or hybrid. The more of us that force this issue, the more the automakers will make. (Remember economics class?)
- Consider canceling crap. We need to pressure the post office to stop giving us mountains of sale papers we don’t want. We keep a box of "burn pile paper" and you’d be surprised how much goes into it on a weekly basis. Something else that is a waste… the newspaper. I normally read 20-30 news stories a day and I haven’t subscribed to a newspaper in forever. Why? There is this wonderful thing called the internet. It’s better than a newspaper or magazine subscription any day. I can read it when I want to, where I want it delivered, and I don’t even have to throw it away.
I know I’ve kind of gone off a bit here. The simple fact is that Christians need to start thinking about "how can I live a life glorifying to God that is about "less" and not "more." Using more does not equal God’s blessing! It often means we are bad managers of the resources God has given us. More than that… these are things that we are willing to lead the way on.
Got any more things we should consider? Comments are welcome! -
Raising Lazarus Handout
In my continued effort to gather feedback for the stuff we’re going to handout… here’s version 1 of our handout for YMX’s charitable arm.
For those who think I am nuts for asking for feedback: Get used to it. I’m a little bit crazy.
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CSR: Wendy’s
You know you live in a small town when you are doing a customer service report on your local fast food chain.Location: This is the Wendy’s here in town, located on VanDyke, just south of the village of Romeo.
Description: As I’ve mentioned before I go out to eat nearly every day for lunch. In doing so you inevitably will need some days when fast food is the only option because of time constraints. I will say that the local Wendy’s is one of my favorites. There isn’t anything special about the location or the building itself.
Service: But they seem to make up for that in something I will describe as "almost satanically fast service." For example, if you go through the drive through you rarely wait more than a single car. You order quickly and pull up to the window where the transaction begins. If you aren’t ready for it… it will catch you off guard. Have your money ready! The clerk will tell you the total and you give her your hard earned "I want my spicy chicken bucks." Now here’s the trick… when they give you the change they will also start handing you food! Seriously, you can be in and out of Wendy’s parking lot in under 2 minutes. I’ve actually had people at the office think I had left to go do something in the building and I’ll come back with my food. It’s simply that quick.
Cost: We’re talking fast food prices here. Lunch is generally $6-7. Maybe a tad more if I accidentally purchase a frosty.
Rating: I have to be honest in saying that I’ve not always had perfect service at Wendy’s. Sometimes in that blur rush they screw up. I’ve gotten incorrect change back and I’ve even gotten halfway back to the office to discover that I had the wrong order. With that, and the offset for being a fast food chain, I’m rating the local Wendy’s 3 out of 5. It’s good and worth keeping in the lunch rotation.
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3 Octobers
The first picture is from yesterday. (2007) The second picture Kristen took up in Dryden last fall. (2006) And the third one come from our front yard the first year we were in this house. (2005)
When people say that your kids grow up fast they aren’t lying. It happens fast. To see more family pictures, check out our family picture page here. (Mobile pics too)
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Do you get the newsletter?
This is shameless self-promotion. But I was looking through our subscription list for the YMX newsletter and I realized something:There are no local subscribers to the weekly newsletter!
That means that none of the folks in my local network gets the newsletter. It means none of my Light Force small group leaders get the newsletter. It means none of the volunteer youth workers at the local church in our area get the newsletter.
A couple reasons to subscribe right now:
- It’s free. No strings attached. Don’t like it… dump it.
- It’s useful. Each week we produce a newsletter that is designed to equip volunteers and paid youth ministry staff. If nothing else… it give the link to this weeks free resource.
I mentioned it was free right?
