Friday, February 02, 2007
Currently listening to: David Sanborn-Hearsay (1994)
Currently reading: 3 Nights in August-Buzz Bissinger (2005)
While most of you look to Punxsutawney Phil for your weather forecast we here in Canada look to a different rodent…Wiarton Willie, who hails from Wiarton Ontario, for our fate on Groundhog Day! The Verdict: An early Spring (if you believe the verdict) Which is FABULOUS! Considering I woke up to even more snow this morning. Ok so this winter has been really low key to what it normally is. What can I say some trust in weathermen, come in channel 9, but I’ll place my trust in Wiarton Willie!
So this weekend is pretty bland, I was planning a trek out of town for some rehearsals for an upcoming youth event YX07 at which I’m playing my sax at in a couple of weeks, but I’m gonna stay home. We have our annual church Breakfast this Sunday which will be a great time I’m sure, and since I’ll be out of town the next couple of weekends I’m gonna stay put. And of course Sunday night is Super Bowl XLI; I’ll talk more about this later who knows I may even do the unthinkable and blog about it tomorrow. But if I have to make any predictions I’m gonna take the Colts over the Bears 20-17. Talk to you soon,
Luke
Questions, comments, concerns? Please feel free to E-mail me!
Thursday, February 01, 2007
Well hello. I’m not exactly sure how to start this so we’ll go like this, Hi! My name is Luke and I’m the 90&9 blogger for February! I live in the GREAT WHITE NORTH!!! aka Canada! We just were able to get the connections for internet in our igloos so I guess that’s why no one from Canada had blogged from Canada before. Ok so I’m just kidding about the igloo part and the internet part so I’m not really sure how come there hasn’t been a blogger, blogging from Canada. First let me give kudos to Jared (blogger for January), I was privileged to go to Gateway College with Jared, and even more privileged to have him in his senior year my sophomore year as one of my theology instructors.
So a little about me, I’m not your typical Canadian, I’m not much into hockey, I’m not a big fan of Tim’s, and I say Ya’ll more than I do eh! I’ve been a Student Pastor at two great Churches, and most recently had the privilege of evangelizing. I’m in love with music! Not just a certain type or genre but music in general. I am the band and orchestra department manager at Musicstop (a guitar center like chain in eastern Canada) and I’m really just waiting on my next move. Life is currently very interesting and I hope that you have as much fun with me as I’m going to have with you sharing my thoughts and views and giving you a window into my world…talk to you soon,
Luke
Questions, comments, concerns? Please feel free to E-mail me!
So a little about me, I’m not your typical Canadian, I’m not much into hockey, I’m not a big fan of Tim’s, and I say Ya’ll more than I do eh! I’ve been a Student Pastor at two great Churches, and most recently had the privilege of evangelizing. I’m in love with music! Not just a certain type or genre but music in general. I am the band and orchestra department manager at Musicstop (a guitar center like chain in eastern Canada) and I’m really just waiting on my next move. Life is currently very interesting and I hope that you have as much fun with me as I’m going to have with you sharing my thoughts and views and giving you a window into my world…talk to you soon,
Luke
Questions, comments, concerns? Please feel free to E-mail me!
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow
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!
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!
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
The Thoughts of Youth are Long, Long Thoughts . . .
Something to Help You Sleep . . .
Ok, I'm sure some readers wouldn't consider 27 to be exactly "youth"; as I was informed by a Gateway student yesterday, that's "almost 30"! At least he's good with math. As odd as it may sound, I really don't feel threatened by 30; in my profession, it's a magic age when people start taking you seriously-does a lot for the respect factor . . .
Back to the long, long thoughts of youth. I mentioned a while back that I'm part of this short story club, led by Illustrious Editor Kent d Curry; I have a great time analyzing all things literary with him; just so you know, we could pretty much revolutionize the world of English literature if Simon & Schuster would give us a book contract. I mean, Bill Shakespeare was good, but I think we've got some truly original ideas, not some hacked plots from Grecian tragedy.
So, Illustrious Editor Kent sent me this quote attributed to Goethe (Again, for the sake of space, I summarize): "There are three kinds of readers: the one who enjoys without judging, the one who judges without enjoying, and the one who reading and judging enjoys both."
So Kent Says . . .
Now, here's where he went with this:
1) Enjoyment without judgment: those who read "genre" literature-Westerns, mysteries, romances, etc. without really considering whether or not this is a truly "great" book.
2) Judgment without enjoyment: the lit-nerd MFAs who get stuck in Metaphor Forest in the Land of Symbolism. Notice that most people get lost in the forest; metaphors are like forests because people get "lost" in them, losing the connection of reality and referent . . .ahem, I digress.
3) Reading, judging, and enjoying: those who appreciate the story as simply a "good" story but are also able to read a little below the surface and understand that when a cowboy is dressed all in black, that's a "Western symbol" for "bad guy"!
This last "level" is the level at which people should read everything, including the Bible.
Then I Reply . . .
My speciality is interpreting the Bible (a discipline known as "hermeneutics", because, as you know, it wouldn't be "cool" if it was known only as "interpreting the Bible"). That's not quite the same as modern American fiction, so my approach is a little bit different.
So, as a free sleep-aid, I'll describe my take on Goethe. There are three "loci" useful for discovering/extracting meaning from texts. You can discover meaning in a text by focusing on authorial intention, textual structures, and/or personal experiences (you may have heard the term "reader-response criticism"). To say it more simply, the three loci are 1) author, 2) text, and 3) reader. Incidentally, the history of literary and Scriptural study since the Enlightenment has essentially moved along this continuum.
Something to Wonder About . . .
Now, Goethe, as mediated by Kent, seems to describe exactly these three loci:
1) Genre-readers: A literary "genre", by definition, focuses attention on the intention of the author because it raises the question: "Why did the author choose this genre to communicate this message?"
2) Snotty MFAs: These symbol-seekers treat meaning as something that is "buried" in the text, not really related to what the author "originally intended". As an example, I had a friend tell me about a structuralist analysis of the famous Western movie, High Noon, starring Gary Cooper. After analyzing the symbolism, this critic discovered that the movie was about the gender roles of men and women in the Old West. Well according to good ol' Wiki, the movie was an allegory combating 1950s McCarthyism! So take that, unknown structuralist critic, poisoning my friend's mind with your lame-brained, feminist jargon! Ha!
3) The "intelligent" reader: These readers recognize that the "discovery" of meaning within the text is usually more illuminating about the discoverer than about the discovery! Our sociocultural context drastically influences the way we perceive texts.
The Goal: "Good" Reading
The trick is to find a way to balance these three elements. Authorial intention is key to the initial production of the text. Nobody's ever started writing, saying, "Well, I really don't know what I'm trying to say, but . . .". Well. Ok. Maybe that's happened in this blog once or twice. Anyway.
However, texts do have "unintended interpretations"; do you really think that Tom Jefferson was actually including black Americans when he said, "All men are created equal?" (He obviously wasn't thinking at all about the fairer sex). Well, Martin Luther King, Jr. thought that was what he meant, or should have meant!
And, at the end of the day, it is up to the reader to read carefully, aware of our own cultural biases, and looking closely for textual clues that lead us to the author's intended meaning. The final step (as in the case of TJ's "Declaration of Independence" mentioned above) is to judge whether those intentions are truly "good". As some scholars would phrase it: the reader is actively involved in the "production" of meaning. Readers don't "create" meaning ex nihilo; we "discover" or "excavate" it.
Betcha didn't know "reading" was so hard! Maybe that's why Paul is so adamant that Timothy learn to rightly divide the "Word of Truth"; there are a lot of ways to do it "wrongly"-believe me, I grade Bible college papers every day. So, if you're not asleep yet, why don't you pull out your Bible and try some real reading for once? Let me know how it goes!
Questions, comments, concerns? Please feel free to E-mail me!
Ok, I'm sure some readers wouldn't consider 27 to be exactly "youth"; as I was informed by a Gateway student yesterday, that's "almost 30"! At least he's good with math. As odd as it may sound, I really don't feel threatened by 30; in my profession, it's a magic age when people start taking you seriously-does a lot for the respect factor . . .
Back to the long, long thoughts of youth. I mentioned a while back that I'm part of this short story club, led by Illustrious Editor Kent d Curry; I have a great time analyzing all things literary with him; just so you know, we could pretty much revolutionize the world of English literature if Simon & Schuster would give us a book contract. I mean, Bill Shakespeare was good, but I think we've got some truly original ideas, not some hacked plots from Grecian tragedy.
So, Illustrious Editor Kent sent me this quote attributed to Goethe (Again, for the sake of space, I summarize): "There are three kinds of readers: the one who enjoys without judging, the one who judges without enjoying, and the one who reading and judging enjoys both."
So Kent Says . . .
Now, here's where he went with this:
1) Enjoyment without judgment: those who read "genre" literature-Westerns, mysteries, romances, etc. without really considering whether or not this is a truly "great" book.
2) Judgment without enjoyment: the lit-nerd MFAs who get stuck in Metaphor Forest in the Land of Symbolism. Notice that most people get lost in the forest; metaphors are like forests because people get "lost" in them, losing the connection of reality and referent . . .ahem, I digress.
3) Reading, judging, and enjoying: those who appreciate the story as simply a "good" story but are also able to read a little below the surface and understand that when a cowboy is dressed all in black, that's a "Western symbol" for "bad guy"!
This last "level" is the level at which people should read everything, including the Bible.
Then I Reply . . .
My speciality is interpreting the Bible (a discipline known as "hermeneutics", because, as you know, it wouldn't be "cool" if it was known only as "interpreting the Bible"). That's not quite the same as modern American fiction, so my approach is a little bit different.
So, as a free sleep-aid, I'll describe my take on Goethe. There are three "loci" useful for discovering/extracting meaning from texts. You can discover meaning in a text by focusing on authorial intention, textual structures, and/or personal experiences (you may have heard the term "reader-response criticism"). To say it more simply, the three loci are 1) author, 2) text, and 3) reader. Incidentally, the history of literary and Scriptural study since the Enlightenment has essentially moved along this continuum.
Something to Wonder About . . .
Now, Goethe, as mediated by Kent, seems to describe exactly these three loci:
1) Genre-readers: A literary "genre", by definition, focuses attention on the intention of the author because it raises the question: "Why did the author choose this genre to communicate this message?"
2) Snotty MFAs: These symbol-seekers treat meaning as something that is "buried" in the text, not really related to what the author "originally intended". As an example, I had a friend tell me about a structuralist analysis of the famous Western movie, High Noon, starring Gary Cooper. After analyzing the symbolism, this critic discovered that the movie was about the gender roles of men and women in the Old West. Well according to good ol' Wiki, the movie was an allegory combating 1950s McCarthyism! So take that, unknown structuralist critic, poisoning my friend's mind with your lame-brained, feminist jargon! Ha!
3) The "intelligent" reader: These readers recognize that the "discovery" of meaning within the text is usually more illuminating about the discoverer than about the discovery! Our sociocultural context drastically influences the way we perceive texts.
The Goal: "Good" Reading
The trick is to find a way to balance these three elements. Authorial intention is key to the initial production of the text. Nobody's ever started writing, saying, "Well, I really don't know what I'm trying to say, but . . .". Well. Ok. Maybe that's happened in this blog once or twice. Anyway.
However, texts do have "unintended interpretations"; do you really think that Tom Jefferson was actually including black Americans when he said, "All men are created equal?" (He obviously wasn't thinking at all about the fairer sex). Well, Martin Luther King, Jr. thought that was what he meant, or should have meant!
And, at the end of the day, it is up to the reader to read carefully, aware of our own cultural biases, and looking closely for textual clues that lead us to the author's intended meaning. The final step (as in the case of TJ's "Declaration of Independence" mentioned above) is to judge whether those intentions are truly "good". As some scholars would phrase it: the reader is actively involved in the "production" of meaning. Readers don't "create" meaning ex nihilo; we "discover" or "excavate" it.
Betcha didn't know "reading" was so hard! Maybe that's why Paul is so adamant that Timothy learn to rightly divide the "Word of Truth"; there are a lot of ways to do it "wrongly"-believe me, I grade Bible college papers every day. So, if you're not asleep yet, why don't you pull out your Bible and try some real reading for once? Let me know how it goes!
Questions, comments, concerns? Please feel free to E-mail me!
Monday, January 29, 2007
The Best of Times and . . .
A Fast Look at a New World
I'm behind on some necessary schoolwork, so I'll give you three web articles I found (in roughly 10 minutes) that demonstrate how pervasive (and perverse) the use of the Bible is in our world.
Barak, Blogs, and Blasphemy, Anyone?
Timothy Noah in Slate's Chatterbox blog decides to do a "Messiah watch" on Barak Obama. I'm not sure what bothers me more: that the term "Messiah" is being used to describe American political leaders, or that Timothy Noah is doing it because he thinks it's comical.
Plotz's Plot Against America
Ok, so now we have blogs about blogs and blogs that monitor the comments about other blogs (I'm not sure what sort of cyber-slang to use for that). Anyway, a long time ago, I mentioned David Plotz's adventure of "blogging the Bible". Well, his escapades in Jeremiah are raising some significant comment. . . particularly from a certain MarkEHaag, who's convinced that Plotz's rant against subversive Jeremiah is really about an new (and wrong) American definition of patriotism. How's that for finding America in Bible prophecy . . .
Sorry about the pun with the Philip Roth title . . .
Budweiser, Baptists, and Biblical Church
Last, but not least, take a look at this new ministry from The Journey, an "emerging church" in good ol' STL. They meet . . .at a brewery. Why? Because the call of the Church is to go to the people, not make the people come to them. BTW, it started in '02 with 30 members; today it has 1200. Hmmm . . .could Apostolics do this? Why or why not?
Would love to hear from you . . .
Questions, comments, concerns? Please feel free to E-mail me!
I'm behind on some necessary schoolwork, so I'll give you three web articles I found (in roughly 10 minutes) that demonstrate how pervasive (and perverse) the use of the Bible is in our world.
Barak, Blogs, and Blasphemy, Anyone?
Timothy Noah in Slate's Chatterbox blog decides to do a "Messiah watch" on Barak Obama. I'm not sure what bothers me more: that the term "Messiah" is being used to describe American political leaders, or that Timothy Noah is doing it because he thinks it's comical.
Plotz's Plot Against America
Ok, so now we have blogs about blogs and blogs that monitor the comments about other blogs (I'm not sure what sort of cyber-slang to use for that). Anyway, a long time ago, I mentioned David Plotz's adventure of "blogging the Bible". Well, his escapades in Jeremiah are raising some significant comment. . . particularly from a certain MarkEHaag, who's convinced that Plotz's rant against subversive Jeremiah is really about an new (and wrong) American definition of patriotism. How's that for finding America in Bible prophecy . . .
Sorry about the pun with the Philip Roth title . . .
Budweiser, Baptists, and Biblical Church
Last, but not least, take a look at this new ministry from The Journey, an "emerging church" in good ol' STL. They meet . . .at a brewery. Why? Because the call of the Church is to go to the people, not make the people come to them. BTW, it started in '02 with 30 members; today it has 1200. Hmmm . . .could Apostolics do this? Why or why not?
Would love to hear from you . . .
Questions, comments, concerns? Please feel free to E-mail me!
