Spend some time on

Conservapedia.org

and

creationwiki.org


as well as at Answers in Genesis

if you want to engage with the distinguished member of the scientific community tonight.

Those sites should cover all of those things that you Roswell Doctors missed in your sinful "universities" and "medical schools."

A special 10 things presentation.

I have another relatively new post below, but I couldn't wait to do this one.

Paul, is there a way to imbed the presentation? Or is linking to it best?

This week, I had a tough job for my church. Why? Because every year ask people to make a pledge for the next year, which allows us to set our budget. Because I want our service to and connection with the community to grow, I would also like our budget to grow, but that means that the people that go to the church have to give more money.

And I'm actually ok with asking for money, because I believe in what we are doing. (My guess is that Paul feels the same way regarding asking for estrip money--his appeal inspired this post).

Here's my problem. Most of the proven methods of getting people to give are counter to our message. They either appeal to pride (Christians shouldn't be too keen on that) or fear (we believe that there's nothing for us to fear). It's all well and good for Paul to give out titles and stars (and I DO want my title!), but the church's message is quite different.

So anyway, we normally kick things off with a letter. Here's my first draft. (there will be a 10 things I love about google docs soon)

It's the kind of letter that normally gets written by Presbyterians Pastors, with a little bit of Drew style thrown in.

But I was almost ready to mail it and it didn't feel right. So I scrapped it and wrote this letter.

More honest, more direct, less about pride and/or fear.

To be honest, I don't know if it will make any difference, but I feel much better about the second effort.

1. It makes stuff grow.

2. It makes football more interesting (less passing, more fumbles, more slips).

3. Playing in mud (it's been a while, but its fun)

4. It keeps whatever I am allergic to down.

5. It's cheaper/easier than a car wash.

6. The arrested development song "rain."

7. My dog will not bug me for a longer walk.

8. Rain helps streams, and I like streams.

9. Rain can cover for me if I accidentally leave the house with bed-head.

10. Estrip tells me that it is raining.

Why the celebration? This post put "10 things" in the tag cloud on the estrip main page. My lack of creativity/tendency to make lists has finally paid off! I am slightly less insignificant now!

1. Most of the time, I leave church in a good mood.

2. The Simpsons.

3. Football.

4. Naps.

5. Sunday Dinners.

6. Phone calls home.

7. Walking outside when the weather is great, like today. Building a fire and/or hunkering down when it is cold.

8. The Sunday newspaper.

9. Brunch

10. Seeing the "early Elmwood" people on the way to church.

Day off, had to buy Pirogies for a dinner tonight, and had a couple of months bottles to return, so I loaded them into the truck and headed to Wegman's.

I decided I deserved a treat, but I wanted to be healthy.

"Wegman's has Sushi I thought!" excitedly.

I went over to the little place and quickly realized that Wegman's made ahead of time sushi is MORE EXPENSIVE than the great, custom made, fresh sushi of Kuni's.

I like Wegman's, but they are way off with their sushi pricing.

1. It's playing scrabble.

2. It's playing multiple games of scrabble at once.

3. It's free.

4. It's at your own pace.

5. You can talk trash as you play.

6. You can check the dictionary and two word lists as you play.

7. I can play with friends near and far.

8. It doesn't involve my wife having simulated affairs or dieing.

9. Good feelings when I log in and see its my turn.

10. I haven't lost a game yet.


If you are on facebook, look for me (my last name is Ludwig) and start a game!

1. He was a pioneer. He was trained in theological liberalism, but left that camp when it failed him and created a whole new way of doing theology.

2. He was, at the same time, humble. He realized that his theology was only for the time and place in which it was written. He knew that there would always be new questions, and theologians would always have to start over from the beginning.

3. He fought the Nazi's. Almost everyone in Germany went along with the German church in endorsing Hitler, but Barth wouldn't and got fired for it. (Bonhoeffer one-upped Barth by dieing as a resister, but Barth was still pretty cool).

4. He kept writing until he died, and still didn't finish his work.

5. He was, arguably, the first post-modern theologian.

6. Despite saying so much (his major opus, Church Dogmatics, stacks about four feet high), he also knew when to keep his mouth shut. He was able to say "I don't know" when he didn't.

7. He was cool with other people. Despite being very much a reformed, protestant, Christian theologian, he had a whole lot of appreciation/dialouge with people outside of those traditions.

8. He learned as he went. Barth had a lot to learn when he was first hired as a professor, and often had to go straight from the library to his lectures. His students loved learning with him as much as from him.

9. He reached out. Despite being very much in demand as a theologian, he made time to preach to prisoners, because he knew that God cared for prisoners.

10. His quote: "We should preach with the Bible in one hand, and the newspaper in the other."

I got a new digital camera, but do not currently have a card reader/USB cable. My brother will give me one come thanksgiving, but I want to start posting pics now! My guess is that one of you technical people has an extra one to spare. Am I right?

Last Sunday, members of my Sunday School asked me to teach a class on homosexuality and the Bible.

Which I expected would happen eventually, because really, Christians tend to talk about sex more than anything else.

But I was hoping to avoid said topic, because people tend to fight and not listen and judge when they talk about sex. And I want to avoid these things.

But they really wanted to talk about it, and promised they would be kind, and hinted that a lot of people would be interested and come to hear if I talked about what the Bible said about Homosexuality, and really, the proud part of me wanted a lot of people in my class, and I thought I could make an even handed presentation so I said, "Yes, I will do the class."

But since then I have changed my mind.

And here's why. There are no (out of the closet, at least) gay people in our church. So the class would be full of people that want to discuss an issue that DOESN'T apply to them, and that doesn't seem to be a worthwhile use of our time.

So instead, I plan on offering a class called, "Why we aren't going to talk about homosexuality for at least one year."

Points will include:

Right now, nobody (on any side of the issue) is open to change. If education does not lead to a change in heart or behavior, than it isn't really worthwhile or necessary education, in my book.

Right now, this does not (as far as I know) directly apply to anybody that will be attending the class. It is a waste of time to talk about hypotheticals when there is real stuff that we can deal with in the moment.

Christians have a reputation for being obsessed with sex and hypocritical about it. Such a class would feed into that unhealthy reputation.

Our goal for the next year is to welcome young families and people without a Christian community. Right now, we need to learn how to do this, and this class does not feed into said goal (It also does not feed into our mission of Loving God and Loving People, at least not right now).

There are right ways and wrong ways to develop any ethical position, and I would much rather teach the right ways to develop said position with a non-polarizing issue, so that those same principals can be applied to other situations.

So maybe in one year after focusing on other things, we will be ready to address this issue which I know IS important to talk about, for people of all positions.

So my question, critical thinking friends, is: Am I dodging? Is this a cop-out? Will this make things better? Worse? I am I being true to my calling, both to work for justice and to preach the word faithfully?

I really want your opinion on these matters, so please don't be shy.