Hank Hill Goes Church Shopping

I came across this on a blog I read every so often. You can check out revdronn here. Anyways, for the uninitiated, the video stars Hank Hill, a slightly right of center Texas family man, who feels it is time to look for a new church. I am posting it at a time when people around the United States are just starting summer, a traditional time for many church goers to check out other churches in hope of finding that perfect, sinless, non hypocritical, great for kids, growing, bible based, exciting, serving, hymn singing, contemporary, worshipping, spirit filled, God fearin', great coffee serving, post modern, and who knows what else... new church! In an era when people believe they are entitled to always have good things from God, along with a fun and exciting experience at church, this little video hits surprisingly close to home. Enjoy. (as always, share whatever you want, but like i did with ron, give me some credit.)

Death of Doughboy

Like alot of people raised in the 60's, Wall Street Marketing, and the television had a big affect on me. I can still recite advertising jingles for products I have never bought. Do any of you remember Rosemary Clooney singing "Extra value is what you get when you buy Coronet?" It was a paper towel song, from the classic big band songtress. How about "Winston tastes good like a cigarette should?" They just seem to stick with you. It is in that spirit that I share an item that came across my desk this morning from another good friend. The Death of the Pillsbury Doughboy Dave, it is with the saddest heart I pass on the following: Please join me in remembering a great icon - the veteran Pillbury spokesman. The Pillsbury doughboy died yesterday of a yeast infection and complications from repeated pokes in the belly. He was 71. Doughboy was buried in a lightly greased coffin. Dozens of well wishers and celebrities turned out to pay their respects, including Mrs. Butterworth, Hungry Jack, The California Raisins, Betty Crocker, The Hostess Twinkies and Captain Crunch. The gravesite was piled high with flours. As long-time friend, Aunt Jemima delivered the eulogy, describing Doughboy as a man who never knew how much he was kneaded. Doughboy rose quickly in show business, but his later life was filled with turnovers. He was not considered a very "smart cookie," wasting much of his dough on halfbaked schemes. Despite being a little flaky at times, he even still, as a crusty old man, was considered a roll model for millons. Toward the end it was thought he would rise again, but alas, he was no tart. Doughboy is survived by his wife, Play Dough; two children, John Dough and Jane Dough; plus one they had in the oven. He is also survived by his elderly father, Pop Tart. The funeral was held at 3:50 for about twenty minutes. (you know the drill. if you laughed, or not, feel free to pass it, just give me a little credit. blessings, dave)

Ensenada Meanderings

I just returned from Ensenada, Mexico.  And no, this is not going to be a post about immigration, because frankly, Kingdom wise, immigration is a non issue.  I just want to share with you how my last couple of days went. We arrived late Tuesday and went to meet Pastor Alejandro at his house to plan our summer ministry times together.  We have worked with Alejandro for over 10 years.  By the time we got there for dinner, about 6:30, two other families had joined them for dinner.  Soon thereafter, two other families arrived and before you knew it, the entire kitchen and living area was full.  Lilia served molé up to rapidly growing group as we sat around the table for hours sharing stories, planning ministry together, and enjoying some incredible fellowship.  Every time I am at Pastor Alejandro house in the evening, there is a meal and the people of his church are always welcome.  I think there is a lesson for those of us who keep our houses closed to others. Wednesday we visited Pastor Martín.  We have known Martín for about 4 years and in that time have helped them become better able to respond to the needs of their community in a variety of ways.  This year we have a group that will be helping with some outreach events not only at his church, but also further up in the hills behind his church where conditions are really tough.  Most of the people of that area struggle to get enough money to have one good meal a day.  The children seldom have new clothes and the clothes they do own are usually dirty, torn, and ill fitted hand me downs.  Martín and his wife Mariné believe they need to do ministry in this area as well as the area around their church. In the afternoon we visited with Pastor Jesus Vera.  His church is growing very fast and they no longer fit in their worship center, which we built about 5 years ago.  As his congregation is young, it will be hard for them to set aside the necessary money, about $30,000.00 US to build a worship center.  We have developed building plans and needed the final approval from Pastor Jesus to begin the process of finalizing those plans and seeking funding so that we can build next year.  When this is done, Pastor Jesus and his wife Mirtha will be able to realize a ministry dream of having a center open to the hundreds of kids left unsupervised after school in their area. Our evening was spent at Café Tomas with Camilo.  I blogged about this place earlier in the year.  Camilo has been the person in charge of our Outreach Ministries in Mexico the last three years.  I have never seen a guy so committed to kids hearing about God.  He is an incredible guy with a heart of gold who wants to see the whole world come to know and love Jesus.  I love having him working with us. Then we stopped by to see Hermana (sister) Rebeca.  Rebé as she is known to those close to her is our cook.  But she is so much more than that.  She is one of our closest friends, not just in Mexico, but anywhere.  She is a mom to our teams, counselor for my interns, prayer partner, and one of the family.  I have worked with Rebé and her family for the last 15 years.  She is the closes thing I can imagine to having a sister. In a time when relationships come and go, I am fortunate to have friends and ministry partners who have stood alongside of us for many years.  It has not always been easy, but it has always been worth it, “vale la pena” in Spanish.  Thank you God for bringing these people into my life and for the time we had together this week.

Peace on That

This last Saturday I was fortunate to be part of a celebration in Los Angeles. Our denominational region of the American Baptist Churches gathered to celebrate 100 years of ministry in the city. Over 1000 people were there as we worshipped, sang, read scripture, and prayed in not only English, Spanish, and Chinese, but Portuguese, Korean, Russian, French, and many other languages. It was what I imagine when I read The Revelation of John. In Chapter 7 he paints the picture of people from “every tongue tribe & nation” gathering to praise and worship God. I experienced that Saturday and I am thankful. Yet even after something as powerful as our celebration was Saturday, I often wonder why the Church is not growing and having more of a real impact on people’s lives. Where are we seeing real transformation that relates to the numbers of church goers we have in the world. What I am talking about here is not just about Jesus. It is about our actions matching up to our words. Walking the walk, not just talking the talk. It is about marriages, relationships, honor, love, and how we, as people of God, treat others. Are we being salt and light in our communities? Are we being instruments of God’s reconciliation? Today I’d like to include something for you to check out to help answer those questions. If we truly hope to be part of reconciling the world to God so that people from every tongue, tribe, and nation can praise God, then we will need to figure out a way to respond to what follows. It is from James Manning at peaceonthat. I have never met James personally, and yet I consider him a friend. We correspond through the blogosphere. Sometimes his language is a little rough. But if you can get past that and focus on the message, you’ll be challenged. I am including a little part of his post today, titled “Some Problems I Have With Christians.” You can read the entire post here. I was raised in a very religious home. My great-grandfather founded the church I attended. My grandmother read the Bible to me almost every night, then Reverend Porter did the rest on Sunday mornings. Over the years I’ve studied the Bible and have probably read the entire book at least three times in my adult life. There are things that stick in my mind and there are scriptures that I can reference and many more I know where to go to find them even if I can’t recall them verbatim. I have a good understanding of biblical principles. Basically, I have a decent working knowledge of the Bible. As for my faith, I firmly believe in God. He has answered numerous prayers and I have no doubt that He is with me. As a human, I wonder about the validity of other religions. But as a Christian, I know that only through Jesus Christ am I saved. I say all of that to present one of my greatest conflicts. I believe in the Bible – but I don’t trust my fellow Christians. That’s not a blanket indictment of every Christian I know. I think Scott has a great church and every time I heard him speak I would say to myself… I got that. I’ve met a lot of good people and there were a few that I knew were Christian simply by the way they carried themselves and how they communicated with others. There have even been a select few that I’ve been around and felt the presence of God. Their anointing was that powerful. So please understand that I’m talking in generalities. But I digress… The fact is, the biggest problem with being a Christian is dealing with other Christians. I don’t like being around them most of the time. Many are judgmental, mean, arrogant, aloof, self-righteous and in general, not all that fun to be around. Many quote scriptures to fit their own needs. I actually had to leave a church. Not because of what the preacher was teaching but because of the people he was teaching. It was the rudest, cruelest bunch of people I’ve ever met. Human nature being what it is, there will always be people that won’t represent their faith as they should. But as I’ve gotten older, it has gotten harder to listen to Christians discuss their faith then look at their actions and see neither resembling anything close to my understanding of what a Christian should be. (as always, you know the rules. use whatever you want, but make sure you give proper credit, because it is all copyrighted! james, thanks for being honest. ©)

Is The Apocalypse Upon Us?

Can you believe it? This is possibly bigger than the Red Sox breaking the Curse of The Bambino. Maybe bigger than Truman defeating Dewey in the 1948 Presidential Elections, and certainly bigger than that little run George Mason made in the NCAA Tournament this year. This is one of those signs that the world may be about to end. The sky is falling. Pigs are flying. I think it is even mentioned somewhere in Revelation. Yes folks, as unbelievable as this may sound, the Los Angeles Clippers won a playoff series. You read that right. Not only did they get in, they won, defeating Denver 4 games to 1. Denver, the once proud ABA franchise, will now forever be known as the team the Clippers beat in 2006, for their first playoff series win since leaving Buffalo sometime last century. The last time the Clippers won, they weren’t even the Clippers. They were the Buffalo Braves. Gerald Ford was president. Nelson Rockefeller was his veep. It cost thirteen cents to mail a letter and “The Mary Tyler Moore Show" was the top comedy on television, besides the Braves/Clippers games. Rocky was the number one movie and the country was celebrating the bicentennial. The NBA wasn’t even live on television those days. To watch a playoff game, you stayed up until 11:30, after the news, and watched a tape delayed broadcast of the game. Maybe not even your team. And you already knew who won. It was like ESPN Classic, only the same day! What a team those guys had back then. Real players like John Shumate, Bob McAdoo, and Jim McMillan were surrounded by the likes of Kevin Kunnert, Gar Heard, Dale Schlueter, Kevin Kunnert, Ken Charles, and Don Adams. And no, not the Don Adams who played Maxwell Smart in the old spy series. There is just something not very intimidating about names like Kevin, Gar, Ken, Don and Dale. These were their players. Incredible. Even their logo was weak. Check it out! Those are supposed to be sailboats. Sailboats in an NBA logo. You know the Lakers used to tremble when they saw those jerseys sailing into town. I'll bet the even the players hated that logo. I am not sure how far they can go this year. They’ll play the either the Lakers or the Suns in the next round. Which they will lose because they are, after all, the Clippers. But after all these years, their fans, can finally look towards next year with real hope. That is until owner Donald Sterling reminds them he doesn’t really want to win games, that he is in it for the money and dismantles this good, young , soon to be expensive team. Who knows, maybe the Lakers can pick up a few players from them.