A Month in the Life

Before I Go
I'm thinking my theme for my blog this month should have been an attempt to get on "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" I'm sort of a trivia buff, so I'm my wife's new plan to make her millions. (She married me for all the money she thought I could make, but then I decided to become a minister. . .oops!) I'm beginning to think that the best way to get noticed on 90&9 is to threaten to go on/buy/rent/walk by/look at a TV! Just look at the reaction to the "Wife Swap" entry! Wow! I particularly liked the anonymous "Maybe the UPC is a CULT!" comment. Thank you to whoever wrote that; it really made me laugh. (But I still love you, brother/sister!)

I really don't think I'd want to watch it. Honestly, I'm a little bit pessimistic about how this will go. Not so much about how Sis. Hoover will do in the "punk" household, but how Tish will do in the Apostolic household. Here's the scenario I see developing: in the Meeks household, the children are encouraged to "express" their feelings (translation: use profanity!) Now, the second week, the swapped wife sets the rules: can Tish Meeks make it a "rule" that the kids must use foul language? Not saying she will do that (that'd be weird, but she is a punk-rocker!). I admit it, I'm the "Chicken Little" of my family; I get a stomach ache and it's liver cancer within 5 minutes. But, still, could she make that a rule that the family must follow? Ho-ho, that'd be the first time ever the words, "But it's against my personal convictions," would be aired on national TV!

Mixin' Up the Generations
I found this interesting column today in the business section of STL's Post-Dispatch. It seems that the most dramatic shift in the American workplace is the presence of 4 or 5 different generations in the same workspace. The Babyboomers, ever the rebellious 60s Flower Children, refuse to retire and go home like all the other "good" old people; maybe it's also because Social Security isn't enough to support them.

Anyway, each of those generations (Repps Hudson, the columnist, gives each generation a helpful moniker) have very different work ethics and expectations. It's not much different at church . . .

So, as a teacher, I'm always looking for the "teaching moment"; I think I've found one. Let me use a bad example (I can't think of a good one at the moment), but this may be one you can relate to . . . I'm not sure how many readers have grown up in an Apostolic church, but, if you have, how many times, after buying the latest Carman album (oh yeah, now that's real CCM), did older folks (read: your parents) say, "That sounds just like the stuff I used to listen to when I was in the world"? I'm guessing, a LOT! So, you'd roll your eyes and turn it off . . .until they were out of earshot. My mom used to say that to me ALL the time; I was like,"Wuh?! But MOM, it's cool!"

But, being older and wiser as I am, I figured something out. My mom and I had completely different sets of associations. Mom heard that and remembered a life out of church. Now, if you ever meet my mom, you'll laugh your head off remembering this blog. There's a new country song that tells the story of this little boy finding pictures of his mother before she "settled down", as it were; I think it's called "I Saw Mama 'Fore She was Mama!" Anyway, if you know the song (how would you, you're all good Pentecostals; I'm the one who listens to all the "bad" music!), it was NOT written about my mother, ok? She wasn't what you would describe in any way as a "party animal"; I bet she got tipsy from root beer, ok? So my analogy begins to break down . . .

Anyway, I've never been to a bar; I've never gone out clubbin' (I would put a whole new meaning to the saying, "White folk can't dance!"). So, I'm groovin' to my Carman and I get jumped by some new convert berating me for listening to "worldly music". Well, I'd get offended or embarrassed, but now I understand. When said person (from hence known as X) heard that music, it really brought back a flood of bad memories, things they had abandoned at the altar . . . things they would rather not remember.

Now, I had no such bad memories attached to it. X should have understood that; I should have understood X. I think this is exactly the issue Paul is getting at with his discussion of stronger and weaker brethren (and sistren) in Romans 14-15; a quick lesson from hermeneutics, it's all about personal context! Where you or I came from totally shapes the way we experience certain things.

This Awesome Awful Thing Called "Church"
That's what makes being church so hard and so rewarding. It's not just about learning "the Gospel", it's about learning "people". It's a tough job; just think of the "worship wars" going on in most churches, all fueled by multiple generation gaps.

But we're all a part of it. I don't have to "like you" (another ambiguous English term) or agree with you; but I am required to do whatever I can to support your spiritual growth and maturity. Now, if we could only do that rather than just talk about it!

The End of Our Journey
So, it's been a fun month for me. I hope you've been amused, all two of my readers (JK)! Mayhap we'll catch up again some time. Until then, be saved, be relevant, be the Church!


Questions, comments, concerns? Please feel free to E-mail me!