Ok. For those of you who are tired of all of this religious stuff, sorry if I got it started.

Now, full disclosure disclaimers:

1. While I profess to be a Christian, and even find employment as a minister, please do not assume that I am the person that is from your family, or on tv, or shouting at you at a march. There are a lot of people that call themselves Christian, and a lot of them are messed up.

2. While I do not particularly like being linked to all these folks that give me a bad name, I will not deny them. They are my family. It's a screwed up family, yes, but I am one of us.

3. As a Christian, that means two things. One, I can work to make a church that is very much unfaithful and hurtful, more faithful and less hurtful. Two, I can apologize on behalf of my brothers and sisters. We are supposed to love you to the point of giving up our lives, and we often we fail miserably. There are plenty more things that I could apologize for, but you get the point.

4. I will share my faith with a person who is open to it. I will even admit that I would be happy if you chose to follow my faith. This is not because I see you as worthless until you believe what I do. It is because my faith teaches me to love my neighbor, and I cannot love you without sharing who I am. That being said, I will always do my best to listen, to understand, and to respect. I never want to coerce or threaten (I especially don't want to do this on behalf of God).

Ok, enough disclaimers for now.

At pride fest, I bought a bumper sticker that had a Ghandi quote on it. It said, "Your Jesus I like. Your Christians I do not like. So unlike your Jesus."

I, too, despite plenty of bad experiences with Christians (yes, it happens to us Christians, too--probably more because we always find each other!) I still really like Jesus.

Jesus spent most of his time talking about the Kingdom of God. Most people assume that this means that he was talking about heaven, but he said that it was near. When he taught his followers to pray, "Thy Kingdom come . . . on earth, as it is in heaven," it seems to me that he was concerned about the here and now.

Jesus mostly talked about the Kingdom in stories. (I know, quite different from the propositional, black/white thinking that most Christians present.) These stories call for radical love--to the point of self-sacrifice--and a re-oredering of values. "The last are first and the first are last" is a good summary, but the amazing thing about these stories is that I have thought about them for most of my life, and I still can't really wrap my mind around them. Once I thought that I could use them against other people, but now I think that God mostly uses them to change me.

Anyway, this Kingdom thing, it's powerful. It's other-worldly, but its more this-worldly. I'll describe, for now the Kingdom and the way we live by amending the quote from (e:uncutsaniflush)'s post:

We (Chrstians) are called to loves our fellow, AND God. Loving God helps us love people that sometimes give us no other reason to love them. We also believe that heaven is something for which we should work now - here on earth for all people together to enjoy. We also believe, however, that we cannot do that on our own. Christ showed us how to live in such a way to create that heaven, and his Spirit empowers us to make such a bold attempt

We needs, and find it through prayer (among other practices). Our inner conviction, and strength to meet life, to grapple with it, to subdue it and enjoy it is severely lacking, or worse, misguided when we try to make it on our own.

We believe that knowledge of ourselves and a knowledge of our fellows is limited by our perspective. We know ourselves AND our fellows better when we pay attention to the Spiritual. A life of fulfillment is a gift from God.

We seek to know ourselves and our fellows AND to know God. We believe in building the hospital AND the church. We believes that a deed must be done AND a prayer said. Both support each other. We, like the atheist, also strive for involvement in life and not escape into death, but we no longer fear death, for we believe it does not have the last word. We also want disease conquered, poverty vanquished, war eliminated. We wants people to understand and love each other.

We also want an ethical way of life, but find that we cannot accomplish it on our own.

We also believe that we are our brother's keepers; and are keepers of our own lives; that we are responsible persons and the job is here and the time is now."


So, if you compare this with (e:uncutsaniflush)'s post, you'll find that a lot of the believer's values are similar to the atheists. I'll admit, many atheists do a better job of behaving morally than many Christians. I guess I just can't deny the spiritual realities that I have experienced.

I've got more to say, but I am tired, and my wife wants to use the computer.

Thanks again for the welcome. Again, please remember that I am not trying to offend. If this bugs you, please just don't read my posts.

More later. . .

I started a journal here a while ago when I figured out I was going to move to Buffalo. I've been here one month now, and I would like to journal on a regular basis, so here goes.

I came to serve Lafayette Ave. Presbyterian Church as their new pastor. I accepted the call there because they are wonderful people, in a beautiful building, in a fantastic neighborhood. My wife and I bought a house nearby on Lexington.

Right now, the Church community is like a family. Everybody knows one another, and loves one another, but we don't always agree on everything. I like that. The family does, for the most part, agree that we are here to be a force for good in the Elmwood Village. We already put a lot of ourselves into Loaves and Fishes, but we hope to make a difference in whole lot of other ways.

The church building is in what I consider a perfect location. I would love to utilize it more fully. Send me a note if you would ever like to see what it's like. In addition to a great space for worship, there is a gym, classrooms, a social hall, and even a log cabin. Quite nice.

I have absolutely loved my month in Buffalo. Friendly people, lots of good food, and so much to do during the summer.

Anyway, the church will soon have a website if you want information about it. If you don't like Christians, or church, or whatever, I understand, but I am also quick to caution you not to believe the stereotypes. We're certainly not perfect, but we're also nothing like those people that were shouting at the pride parade. We do our best to love God and love our neighbors, following the way of Jesus. Other than that, we're pretty much like most other people.

The church gathers at 10am Sundays. If you want to know more about who we are, stop and visit or drop a note.

By the way, I won't always post about the church. I'm pretty excited about all the free music here this summer, and getting to know the improv scene, too.

I like estrip so far. People helped right away. I will become a more regular reader/poster as I get closer to moving. Until then, Thanks!

Moving to Buffalo and Elmwood area in the next couple months. This site seems like it might be helpful in getting to know the area and the people.

Anyway, if anyone wants to help me find a place to live, I think that will be task number one. I figure We (wife and I) will rent until we can buy.

We don't arrive until May, but we're trying to work on things ahead of time.