I've been ranting enough about politics and religion and the frustrations with talking and not doing. I smiled when I saw this article today:

Then came the morning of May 12, when both satisfaction and retirement ended for the 75-year-old priest. Federal immigration agents raided the Agriprocessors factory, arresting nearly 400 workers, most of them men, for being in the United States illegally. Within minutes of the raid, with surveillance helicopters buzzing above the leafy streets, the wives and children of Mexican and Guatemalan families began trickling into St. Bridget’s Church, the safest place they knew.

For those who don't know, I was hired on as Youth Minister at my church as of June 1 (the church website looks awful, I had nothing to do with it).

The cool thing about the new gig is that I've been able to do some rebranding of the program, including a new website. The old website, available here, had some shortcomings to say the least.  Thanks to Drupal, however, I've been able to build a new website in a short period of time. I know some of the Twitterers have taken a look at it, but I'd like to ask those of you out there to check it out as well and give me some feedback. The new site, available here, is open for your critique.

After my recent post on the Catholicity of the Faith, I have been keeping an eye on responses and examples of those living that out. Today my little brother posted about the church and his perceptions of its frustrations and shortcomings which is well worth the read. A few excerpts:

The first thing that is really bothering me is in the attitude of the church. It seems that so many leaders in the church, and members as well have become exceedingly lazy and content with the current functions

I find it interesting how often the tithe money goes to the pastors, building, and missionaries. It seems like the poor/orphans/widows are forgotten. Now, I'm not saying that this is true in every situation, but it has seemed to be a pretty constant theme in my experience.

He also managed to get a dig in at Joel Osteen. Awesome (Too bad he couldn't slip in a dig at Brian McLaren)

My friend, a Lutheran pastor, recently blogged about Luke 15 and how those celebrations compare with "celebrations" in the church today. Two snippets from Luke 15 follow below, or you can read the entire passage here:

7 Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

10 Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.

What Dion tackles is the difference between those heavenly celebrations listed above and those we have when our church membership rosters grow. His main argument:

Notice that Luke 15 does NOT say that the angels in heaven throw a party when a disgruntled catholic or baptist from the church down the street transfers to our church. Nor does it say that the angels in heaven wait to rejoice until the "sinner" who repents becomes a contributing part of the organization...pulling his/her own weight! It certainly doesn't even entertain the notion that the angels might celebrate when a church quits looking for valuable "lost" people altogether so that it can give more attention to those who are lucky enough to be found!

What a fair and accurate account of how 21st century American churchgoers tend to live! We tend to shut ourselves in our Fortresses and celebrate those who "sneak out the back door of one church and in the front door of another." It seems we do a pretty crappy job of living the Nicene Creed and ignore Missional Living altogether.

On that note, who is interested in doing some labor of love ministry in the Detroit area? There are a lot of people in this city who could use some help with their homes, yards, cars, etc.

This afternoon a group from our church participated in the Big Brothers Big Sisters Bowl For Kids Sake 2008. Tons of fun, cheap entertainment and a great way to raise money for a good charity. Pictures are attached, most of them will be left unexplained.

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It's true. For a long time I was anti-church calendar, anti-liturgy, etc. I remember hating having to go to a Good Friday or Christmas Eve service (and this at a church that didn't recognize the church calendar at all). Then I did my stint of anti-church in college, which worked out "oh so well." So it's probably ironic to find me in a traditional liturgical worship, especially this week when there are services nearly every day. For a while, I struggled to explain it, but I found the book that puts it into words. This isn't a new book, but Dr. Bob Webber's Evangelicals on the Canterbury Trail (available through my aStore here) emphasizes the beauty and mystery of God celebrated in liturgical worship. It is a relatively short, simple read (less than 150 pages I believe) and yet it is clear how relevant liturgical worship was to Dr. Webber. I know that things like Lent went from "geez, I have to give this up, I can't wait for Lent to be over" to a more Christ-like approach in the vein of the Book of Common Prayer description: "the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God's holy Word."

In any church or faith, it is important to understand the rituals and methods of worship. In the anti-liturgical methods of Sunday worship, they are actually quite "liturgical" in the literal sense, and I believe that it is important to understand those as well. Diversity in worship in Christ's Church is important, to be sure, provided a certain focus is present. I'd like to see a better understanding amongst Christian traditions of "the other ones" out there, and by that I do not mean other faiths, but other practices in the Christian Church. I grew up not understanding, heck, not knowing about the church calendar because our churches did not teach us about them, and that to me is a huge loss. All this to say that I cannot write to nearly the quality and elegance of Dr. Webber's standards, so go read his book instead.

So everyone I know is celebrating "St. Patrick's Day" in one way or another. Everyone except me, and Todd & Kelly since they helped solidify what follows. St. Patrick's Day 2008 does not exist.

Consider this: it officially falls on March 17 each year, which happens to be during Holy Week. According to the Book of Common Prayer, "feasts appointed on fixed days in the Calendar are not observed on the days of Holy Week or of Easter Week" (Easter week being the week that follows "Easter Sunday" or the First Sunday of Easter). Also, "All other Feasts of our Lord, and all other Major Feasts appointed on fixed days in the Calendar, when they occur on a Sunday [or in this case, during Holy Week], are normally transferred to the first convenient open day within the week." It is also stipulated that feasts can not be moved more than 8 days out, but since the 8 day time frame from March 17 is March 25, which falls within Easter Week, St. Patrick's Day just cannot happen this year.

What to do.

Yesterday I finished the late Dr. Robert Webber's book Evangelicals on the Canterbury Trail. A great book for really anyone, but especially those in the Evangelical traditions, or those who have had friends or family leave the Evangelical traditions for liturgical worship. Webber did a great job summing up the draw of liturgical worship and it seems like he was actually telling my story. It is worth the read if you have the chance.

It's your feast day, St. Nicholas! Too bad nobody in the US has any frickin' clue who you are. So I thought I'd post a few sentences on my blog about you, if you don't mind. And if you do, well, let's be honest, you're dead so you will not be shooting me an email complaint.

Basically St. Nicholas was a Bishop in Turkey in the third century and he had a reputation for secret gift-giving. He was never canonized (made into a saint) but is remembered as such by people all over the European world. The tradition eventually developed where children would leave socks (stockings) outside on the night of December 5 and St. Nick would come by and drop gifts in them for the children. So you can pick up on that tradition.

His feast day in the Christian calendar in December 6th, several weeks before Christmas. In the Netherlands and Belgium he is called "Sinterklaas" and this tradition came over with Dutch immigrants to New York City during the American colonial period. It is believed that this tradition was expanded and became prominent as Santa Claus as an acceptable non-English tradition in the newly-formed United States. A good list of the stories and ideas that became today's "Santa Claus" is in the American origins section of his Wikipedia article.

My basic point in sharing this Wiki's worth of knowledge is simply this: we Americans do a great job destroying historical/mythical characters. Can you imagine an old, white-bearded man in a bishop's cloak drinking a Coca-Cola with polar bears? Didn't think so.

Just keep in mind the historical importance of the Christian calendar from time to time and check out the lesser feasts and festivals on Wikipedia or other sources: you can learn a lot about church history and heritage!

I have been able to get involved in my church in several areas recently, one of which is the youth events. From helping manage the website to taking on a leadership role, many avenues have opened up for me to serve that I did not anticipate. Add one more to the mix: teaching lessons.

Mark, the youth director, has asked me to step in a few times and teach the lesson during a couple of upcoming youth gatherings this semester. For one, I am extremely excited. Maybe even a little nervous. Mostly, though, I am openminded to see what God wants me to learn from all of this. I am trying to listen as much as possible and see where this is going to take me.

I will keep you informed.