xphiles

Pastor Hack - Juggling Liturgies

"Pastor, can you explain to me the meaning of life?"

It's a joke one of our lay leaders has gotten in the habit of making.  As he is taking on an increasing role in leading our worship life, he is becoming more and more aware of how much "focus" is needed in the pre-service moments, AND of how likely it is that someone will, within 90 seconds of the start of a worship service, come up to a pastor/ leader and ask a question on par with "I need to know the meaning of life NOW." 
 

But it's a reality of ministry life.  People don't mean to be rude, but they try and engage about the meaning of life, a profoud pastoral care concern, or an important church decision right before worship, sometimes literally as I'm walking into the sanctuary, with my mic on!  And then you try and write yourself a note to follow up with them...  Where's the pen?  (Under your vestments, of course!)  Piece of paper, piece of paper...  Well, there's 3 of them stuck into each of the 2 worship books you're carrying, with announcements that need to be made, a prayer list, etc.  Can't keep track of them, never mind which one I can use as scrap paper...  Ugh.  Oh yeah, and the person who's supposed to help lead worship didn't show up, so do I have an extra copy of the prayers???

So any little advantage you can get in this situation, to help you serve your people in and outside of the worship service, can pay off big time.  Here's one little trick that takes a fair amount of time, but is easily worth it in my book: a weekend "worship book" with everything you need right in your hands.

Two Great Tastes - Not Great Together

"Just because you can, doesn't mean you should."  How true.

Check it out.  Ick. 

Better Life, or More in Life?

I like tech.  I like gadgets.  No apologies.  But I'm starting to think of my "stuff" (technology, gadgets, organizational tools, anything I order from Levenger, etc.) in two categories: stuff that makes my life "easier," and stuff that makes my life better.  The one category I should tolerate.  The other category, I should enjoy.

Faithful spiritual life isn't necessarily life without "stuff," but it also isn't life ruled by stuff.  And I think that when we start to forget the purpose of the various things in our lives (whether they be big-ticket items like homes and cars, or personal items like a PDA, camera, or notebook), we become more vulnerable to the lure of our possessions.

 

Post-Vacation Tech Reflections

Well, we've been back from WA & OR for a while, but I'm only now getting the chance to sit down and blog a bit. I came back, alas, to one of my members near death at a hospice care center, and presided at his memorial service earlier this week. Forty-two years old, two kids. Lord, have mercy.

Anyway, on a much lighter topic -- this was easily the most "teched-out" vacation I've taken. And I must say that I was quite pleased with it all.

Pen-sive

I've started this blog to use writing as a prod/ aid to my listening: if I've committed myself to blogging about the Bible, I'd better be reading the Bible! One of my materialistic hobbies/ interests is similar. I love fountain pens. They ain't cheap, but they're so worth it! I actually write more when I use fountain pens. I take better notes for sermon prep. I write individual letters to people more frequently. They're wonderfully anti-digital. There's technology, sure, but it's more art. Fountain pens even show that personalization doesn't require cookies or other hi-tech means - just let a nib conform to your own writing style over time, and watch how it flows more and more smoothly over the paper.

Check out Levenger, The Fountain Pen Hospital, or Joon if you're interested. (Levenger has some great other stuff, too. Their byline is "Tools For Serious Readers." How can you not love that? FPH has some really pricey limited edition pens, beyond anything I'd ever even consider. I mean, you could buy a used car with that kind of money!)

I prefer extra-fine nibs and converter filling from an inkwell, but in the interest of time, I tend to use cartridges (cleaner, too). My favorite fountain pen is a fine-nibbed Sailor Magellan. Sailor's a Japanese pen company, so the nibs are finer than on Western pens, so the "fine" is more like an "extra fine." I just picked up an extra fine-nibbed Rotring fountain pen which is wonderfully precise.

Yeah, I'm a DINK. (Dual Income, No Kids) And I may not strive to live in a McMansion or drive a Lexus, but I'm still a greedy little Western materialist, by my fault, by my own fault, by my own most grievous fault. But still, I'm not ready to say that all of this is pure materialistic indulgence. There's something rebellious about a fountain pen. They're old; even old-fashioned. They're not disposable, and so they lend a gravity to writing that you just can't get with a cheap clicky pen. So much of our communication is so ephemeral. A fountain pen invites you to slow down, to enjoy the feel of a weightier instrument in your hand, to consider not just what you write, but how you write. (My penmanship actually improves when I'm using one.) While communication is so precious these days (except that it's called "content"), it is also so trivialized. A substantial pen, with liquid ink flowing from nib to paper, makes you consider substantial words.

And that's what (written) communication is all about, and at least partially, what listening is all about. So perhaps a pen with a 14k gold nib isn't just a sinful indulgence. Perhaps it's a lesson in what words can be worth. And when words can carry the Gospel of God, then anything that conveys their worth is an instrument of grace indeed.

Peace,
Evers