Illustration Friday -- Snap

Illustration Friday

Poor Oily-phants...

Peace and Kitchen Pie

Where does ministry take place? What is the heart of teaching in the church setting? I’ll tell you. Eating in the kitchen. That’s right. I’ve had more faith building experiences with students raiding the kitchen at church (or where ever) than I have in any other program.

Some how I could see Christ raiding the fridge with Peter. Passing a couple pieces of cold lamb and fish around after everyone else has gone to bed. Then Jesus asks the hard questions. It’s then that the ministry meat takes place. You can’t tell me that the only things Christ said to his compatriots in three years of traveling is completely contained in the few scant stories about his life that we hold? The bulk of his ministry was eating in the kitchen time.

There are a different set of social rules where ever we meet with people. In dinners, restaurants, offices, parks, libraries, etc. But the one place in which walls that separate us come crashing down the fastest is in the kitchen eating leftovers. It’s sacred time. I think that’s why there are no stories of Jesus regaling over the day’s events with his friends in the after hours. Because those times are wholly spirit times. We aren’t allowed the glimpse into that moment upon which we can build doctrine and rules. It is a time that is completely sprit led.

I wonder how world policy would be different if kitchen meetings were mandatory. What if Sharon and Arafat could have privately shared a plate of Baklawa and coffee in their own kitchens. What grudges could be held if these two men had met not in their expensive suits and military dress, but in nightshirts and robes.

So it is to a lesser degree with all people. If we are truly intent on making connections with one another we are able to meet one another on the common ground of informality. What more can we do than to echo the informality of Christ—the bulk of who’s ministry was not in the synagogues or the temple but in the streets and more often the homes of the people with whom he was called to be. And talk about empowering volunteers! What DCE wouldn’t die to have a ratio of 12-1?

Walking On our Hands

I was talking to a colleague recently about the ‘health’ of a ministry being the most important thing for that ministry. By that I meant that the mentality in any ministry, most especially one for youth, has got to be one that emphasizes the individual relationship with Christ and their walk daily with that faith. The old model that we may be more familiar with is one the puts an emphasis on numbers and exciting events in order to draw students into the church or into the faith. That may be a more critical view of those types of ministry models, but you can see my meaning.

The idea that a youth group must have large numbers in order to be successful is a secular idea that has no real place in the church society. The model we have in Christ is the one that works the best: A small crowd of intimate disciples who had a personal relationship with him who then turned and ministered to the larger crowd. This is the perfect model we can still use today.

The point is that in a ministry of health the numbers will come. People are attracted to success. The easiest and most lasting way to have success is to be healthy. What good is being king of the world if you are too frail and weak to make decisions or enjoy your position?

Doing it another way is like walking on your hands. Yes, you will move. Yes, you are technically walking. But not only is it more difficult, and aside from the fact that your body was not made to walk like that, if you do nothing but walk on your hands you will look ridiculous. Sure people will be fascinated for a while, but eventually you become passé and everyone looses interest. And what do you have to show for it? Sore hands and a headache.

With that in mind it is easy to see why there are so many youth directors who last only a short time in a church or a short time in the ministry field period. They cannot walk on their hands continually—it’s just not humanly possible.

While emotional fervor and being excited about Christ certainly have their place in our faiths there is no possible way we can expect to build a ministry based solely on those attributes.

Illustration Friday - I Spy

Illustration Friday

Those are nerves, not tentacles...

Secure this.

I don't understand the idea of security I guess. we have walls and fences and all manner of devices to keep us secure. We have armies to defend that security. It seems a little pointless really. Think of it like this: the best place to hide something is out in the open. So, by that there should be no walls. Walls mean you are hiding something, which makes people want to get in more, which makes for bigger walls, etc.
In this war in Palestine, the Israelis could have peace in a heartbeat if they really wanted it. But the fact is that they don't. They don't want peace, the want to conquer the land, and drive out the ethnicities that used to live there. If they wanted peace they could have it. People stop fighting when they have just a few things. Food, social mobility, fun, and choices. Or at least the illusion of choices. As a "western" power Israel could provide the people of Palestine with all of these things. The support for groups like Hammas would dwindle and everyone would have the security that they wanted so badly.
But, that's never going to happen, because people like those in the Zionist government of Israel don't really want security, they want control. They want to have absolute power.
Which really, should drive against their faith. Judaism is nothing if not the belief that God only reigns supreme, God only has power and control. To seek it in such strong terms should be an anathema. But it's not, because the Government there isn't really a Jewish government. Look at the throngs of Orthodox Jews who are opposed to it. Not only opposed to the government but opposed to the establishment of Israel as a country to begin with! In Jewish understanding only God can give back the land to the people from the time they had been banished from it for straying from their faith, thousands of years ago.
No the government of Israel is hiding behind the guise of faith in order to measure out another layer of control over it's supporters.
Much like the US. We haven't had a Christian government here since, I don't know when. In God we Trust, is just something that we trot out and use when it suits us, when we think we can gain some control over another party, or faction with the terms. I wish we were a Christian Nation, because our actions would at least have a better purpose than the furtherance of our own greed and pedantic childish wants.

Illustration Friday -- Hide

It hails from an Indigo Girls song, they've been in the playlist lately...
Illustration Friday

Not THAT kind of show...

So this show is freaking Hilarious. That's right. With a capitol H. And you don't necisarily need to be a fan of Britcoms, which am, to get all the jokes.
It's awesome, fast paced, much along the lines of "Arrested Development" without the narration. Also, the idea is that almost all of the camera shots are from one of the character's points of view. Not one single charater mind you, but all of them. It switched back and forth.
Oh! The title... "Peep Show." Which is why i feel vaugly dirty looking for it on Google video. You can catch all the first three seasons there. Currently they are filming the fourth this spring, and I can't wait. FUNNY FUNNY STUFF....

You can check out the wikkipedia entry here. It's pretty good, give the plots for the seasons, characters, but I would say just check out the first few episodes commercial free on Google Video. Great stff.

Illustration Friday -- Communication

this is the Hebrew word for "become light, to shine." A friend of mine was thinking about it for a tattoo, and i sketched something quickly for her. And I just saw Bee Season... pretty cool...

Abraham ben Samuel Abulafia, a Spanish Jew--1240 AD