Correction Toward Sustainable Economy?

Somewhere in my studies over the years I'd heard that the old Greek oikonomos is the root word for economy. In it's original meaning it speaks of "house rules" or "house management." All the recent national and global economic upheaval certainly points to some problems in the house.

Now I'm not primarily an economic or financial thinker, though I tend to have faith opinions on many topics. While you might go to a financial expert (are there any of those in these times?) what I offer is more a faith and life response to the current changes in the world.

I come from much more conservative south Georgia roots. My people have tended more toward survival and are just now taking steps into middle class suburbia. All the financial instability, job losses, loss of homes, loss of stock value, etc. reminds me how fragile this whole thing is. It also reminds me how much we rely upon our job and financial status to define who we are. In our culture now you take away someones job and you strip so much away that for many it is paralyzing, debilitating, completely overwhelming with seemingly few options.

It all makes me wonder if these are global economic corrections which will return us to a more moderate, sustainable lifestyle. Many of us have been feasting and expecting more the next day. Perhaps this just isn't a sustainable way of living. Perhaps we will be returning to something a little closer to the lifestyles of previous generations. Perhaps we have the flexibility and the resilience to make the adjustments which will create a new order. In my mission journeys I find many people who do have these skills. Now it is our turn to adapt, and maybe as we do that we'll find we have actually strengthened our house.

Job Trends

Here's a good link for anyone curious about the job market the next decade. Of course, this targets some of the big trends. Look for the Boomers retiring and know that many professions will be aggressively recruiting. I'd also add that certain occupations always have many opportunities. Consider clergy and church work as one example since it's always a "sinner's market." :) Of course, with any vocation one needs to respond to their calling, their gifts, and the job they can do day-in and day-out that will put bread on the table!

http://www.worldwidelearn.com/online-education-guide/top-ten-job-trends.htm

Burned Out

One of the students I spend some time with at Augusta State University shared some lyrics that got my attention. It is December, the last day of class (when he shared this on 12/4), projects and papers have been due the last few days, and final exams are this week. Plus you add all the mess with the economy and the struggles of everyday life and most people seem beat down! The students are teaching me a lot about creativity, sharing deep thoughts and emotions, and finding one's voice. They are teaching me about listening to music while I read, think, feel! They remind me how challenging many people have it as there isn't enough money to cover the basics of a month, there are no jobs, and life is hard even as they give their best. I'm also becoming aware that there is an honesty, power, and reality that too often more recent traditional or "Christian" styles of music in the United States totally miss! Daniel has a complexity and reality to these lyrics that remind me of some of the Old Testament writings that struggle with current realities (check out some of the Psalms, Lamentations, Job, etc.). I know he is expressing what MANY people are experiencing in these tough days before Christmas. My comments are merely introduction to a creation from T. Daniel Barber. Just be sure to turn on the music and feel the power and emotion of the thoughts.

Lyrics: Burned Out
by T, Daniel Barber, 2007

beat: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFeWW6gUpjs

Burned Out

I’m just so burned out, all that’s churned out, I’m hearing, is so uninspired
I let my soul glow, my eyes closed, in that never ending journey to find fire
It’s crazy; it’s hazy, moving through the fog
Man it’s almost daily, breathing in the smog
The proud can’t reach out, the weak can’t reach in
It’s the world they doubt and the faith they have in
Themselves, living in a personal hell
Trapped in a jail and they ain’t making bail
Turing ambitionless, wandering missionless
Warped to be hideous and pitiless, I hate it
Because you become deluded, end up just like them
Jaded and tainted and you reek of sin
Or you end up all alone, drove crazed by your thoughts
Not seeing no stars, so all hope is lost
Gotta make it past this, don’t like this turn out
But I’m stuck, just straight burned out
That’s what they want, so you can’t resist
So they beat you down, put shackles on your wrist

Hook:
I’m just so burned out; everything I deal with these days is getting me crazed
But I gotta get past it, gotta outlast it, have to break out of this daze (2 x)

It’s so rough to try to make it, to that good life
Because I don’t want to be thinking how I should’ve been right
It’s like boxing with fate and you’re in the 10th round
Everything’s blurred and you’re dizzy, spinning all round
When you were the underdog, they ain’t want you to lose
But when you’re on top, they want you lifted out you’re shoes
Now you’re doing things that’s drastic
But in only take you closer to a casket
When all you really want is to get some rest
Get a couple of minutes away to forget all the stress
And it’s just a mess; you can’t get any real joy
Like when you were a little kid in the room with your toys
Reaching your limits, you just can’t go on
But if you have limits then you just don’t know strong
Now I’m saying things that I barely believe
So many try, few rarely succeed
And achieve what they want, to be building up their power
And the ones that do, in up trapped in a tower
Then the lightning strikes and it all falls down
And then it’s that painful crash to the ground
Is this just how it is, when you go against the grain?
When every other day becomes just another pain
And you’re so burned out; you can hardly fight it
It’s just the price you pay for enlightenment
HookIt’s hard to believe in god and believe benevolence
When you only see malevolence, pride and prejudice
Taking your own path might make you lost
There’s a price for everything and this is just the cost
You wanna get away but you’re not thinking clear
There’s a bottle in your hand and you’re reeking of beer
If life’s supposed to be a painting, then it just got smeared
Becoming what you hated, that’s your worst fear
Another heartless monster, your eye’s freezing cold
You’re so hard now, can’t nothing touch your soul
Tryna drift away, wonder if there’s a heaven
If all of this is a test, well then tell me what’s the lesson?
So maybe the pain will lessen
And I can stop stressing bout reaching perfection
In this failed paradise that we call life
Hiding from the truth like a thief in the night
Nobody’s proactive, all we do is react
All we do is wait to get hit by hot wax
Letting the words of others be affecting what we do
And we’re turn on ourselves and looking like fools
While they’re flashing a smile, emptier than their deeds
Thinking that they can do whatever they please
Getting everyone involved in the evil they conceive
They’ve long been consumed by their greed
No more hero cause now he’s turning villain
Cause when he was hero, they were plotting to kill him
Either be starving or obese in a hearse
Man it’s so perverse, it’s just the reverse
In Africa and America, facing the terror of
Slow extinction, this is just the era of
Disaster, hypocrisy, shadiness and lies
The wool always over your eyes
Plotting for demise, it’s just a matter of time
Won’t let me climb out of this hole in my mind
Maybe they’ll hear my voice on day, my thoughts learn about
But not now, cause I’m just burned out

by T. Daniel Barber (Augusta, GA) 2007

Alternative Gift Ideas

Today is the day at church where individuals and families bring their Angel Tree gifts in. Every year we receive around 250 names of children who share a Christmas wish list of items they would like to receive. So, on this day church members will bring in their bagged items and we'll load the clothes, books, toys, and bikes up in two moving trucks [THANK YOU Bill & Lois Monro of Monro Moving & Storage for donating the trucks and 2 workers for 5 hours!] to be taken to Augusta Urban Ministries. http://www.augustaurbanministries.org/ AUM coordinates the city wide collection, receives the donated items, and then will distribute to families the following Saturday. In addition we also collect 250 jars of peanut butter, 450 bags of flour, and 450 boxes of cereal. It is a very special day that "rings in" the season for me as I experience the emotions of those who give and the collective power as individuals and families work together.

Some years ago we offered an Alternative Christmas Market. We'd give options so that people could help organizations or groups and not just buy more junk for the people in their life! So, people might buy "stock" for Heifer Project International and for their donation which would purchase animals to go to a village somewhere in the world they would receive a gift card to give to good old Uncle Joe who already has everything in the world he needs, yet would appreciate a gift in his honor that changes the world. Others might purchase "studs" for Habitat for Humanity or the Fuller Center for Housing which would aid local work, and prove a fitting gift for Aunt Sue! You get the idea- honor someone at Christmas and change the world without merely creating more clutter in our lives and souls!! It proved a productive, fun favorite of the congregation for a number of years.

In this tougher economy with so many local needs in all of our cities it makes me wonder what alternative gift ideas you might have. Perhaps it's your own creation. Or maybe some activity such as our Angel Tree giving that brings the spirit of the season to life for you. I'm not talking so much about writing a check, or doing what we've always done at Christmas. Instead I'm imagining alternative gift ideas that might be a Christmas blessing to you and to someone else. Maybe that's a shared meal. Perhaps it is spending time with someone who is lonely or isolated. Certainly there is a child or teenager or college student who might not have much of a Christmas unless we have our eyes and ears open and respond to the need.

Be alive to these moments. Share your thoughts as we seek to experience the gift which can be so easily overlooked in the busyness of the season.

Hope, Peace, Love, Joy??!

Sometimes churches use hope, peace, love, and joy as major themes of Advent. I know Christ is the answer, or expectation of those different themes which are typically joined to a given Sunday prior to Christmas. Funny thing- I bet we struggle more with the order of the themes, and which Sunday they line up with, than actually experiencing hope, peace, love, and joy!

This year I find myself drawn to a somewhat different Advent practice. Rather than only focusing on MY experience of this (which is one critical element of Christmas preparation but not the only) I'm trying to imagine how someone in inner city Augusta might be looking for Hope, Peace, Love, and Joy. With more people losing jobs, more financial troubles, talk of ongoing recession, and a national and community sense of struggle this emotion feels right on the surface. This is no "warm fuzzy" Christmas preparation, but a personal and spiritual struggle that is bound up with the community struggle to find hope, peace, love, and joy.

Do you know the classic "The Christ of the Indian Road" by the Methodist missionary E. Stanley Jones (1884-1973). Jones was friends with Gandhi and active in India during their rise to national independence. His work and faith were transformed over the years. His goal was to NOT present an "encrusted Christ" (encumbered by tradition, denominational emphasis, Western emphasis, etc.) but instead share Christ that would bring Life and Good News in a local setting in India. Thus, the Christ of the Indian road.

Of course, Christianity and all its expressions, have tended to get this wrong more often than right! I love the challenge that Jones throws to all religions when he writes "Each system must be judged by its output, its fruit." This is an interesting way to consider various religions. Be careful as you apply to yourself or your church! It is also a helpful corrective as most belief systems stray far from the ideals.

E. Stanley Jones desired to share Christ in India in a way which would allow people to then interpret Christ through their own experience and life, so that their interaction with God would be "first hand and vital." This pushed him to consider the central aspects of the Living Christ in a context where many held a belief system that was fatalistic and paralyzing. Even for the most religious he found they had no way to live up to the system and were only left with the question "What can I do?" in regards to their faith and their life. "What can I do, my Kismet is bad?" "What can I do, my Karma is bad?"

Sounds like life today and so many ways of practical, everyday religious thinking and conversation as we assign much to fate. A new experience of God that brings hope, peace, love, and joy-- NO matter the present situation or circumstance-- would be an excellent Christmas experience.

Stanley writes:

"You cannot break Brokeness. It starts with defeat and accepts that as a way of life. But in that very attitude it finds its victory. It never knows when it is defeated, for it turns every impediment into an instrument, and every difficulty into a door, every cross into a means of redemption. So I concluded that any people that would put the cross at the center of its thought and life would never know when it was defeated. It would have a quenchless hope that Easter morning lies just behind every Calvary."

This might prove a helpful individual and community life skill and attitude in tough times.

Preparing for Christmas,
Scott

Getting Ready for Christmas

The Christian season we are in is called Advent and serves as time of preparation for Christmas. I'm rather slow to get into the spirit, and all the accumulated junk of the season, i.e. rampant consumerism and clutter, doesn't help me much. Plus it's a rather hectic time with the program of the church as we end one year with a major holiday and launch into a new year. I do like the family traditions and some of the church ritual. In general I actually find that this is a time when I get into a little better routine of prayer and devotional reading. I suspect that's because I REALLY need it!

Here's an old prayer that I've modified a little to better suit today's language. I didn't change much though so enjoy the flow of thoughts and be troubled and inspired by the sentiment. I broke it up more like poetry as I found it best to linger with the phrases and thoughts rather than read it coldly and quickly.

O Holy Spirit of God, visit now this soul of mine, and tarry within it until evening.
Inspire all my thoughts.
Pervade all my imaginations.
Suggest all my decisions.
Lodge in my will's most inward citadel and order all my doings.
Be with me in my silence and in my speech, in my haste and in my leisure, in company and in solitude, in the freshness of the morning and in the weariness of the evening; and give me grace at all times to rejoice in thy mysterious companionship.

-From A Diary of Private Prayer by John Baillie

Community Event As a Christmas Gift

Back in the 1980's & 90's Crawfordville GA was known for offering a country Christmas extravaganza featuring lights, eat some food, and have a country Christmas celebration. Christmas in Dixie it was called. And it was equal measure of both! The event lasted a month and was a big deal in the area, a must attend event, and good family fun that many throughout the region enjoyed. Folk from Atlanta to Augusta, Athens to Macon would drive in for a tradition that could only be experienced as words just wouldn't adequately capture the sights and sounds!!

Check out a great country Christmas event at a church I served for a couple of years where we picked up elements of that tradition. This is a great time for parents or grandparents with Children, though Youth and College students will also find this a fun little road trip. See directions at the end of note for this church down I-20 just beyond Thomson GA. Share this note with other churches and families in the area as this fun deserves strong regional support. Proceeds help the church to continue this gift to the community.

Macedonia United Methodist Church

Presents the 8th Annual“Christmas at Cedar Rock”

December 11, 12 & 13, 2008, 6:30 – 9:00 p.m.

• Enjoy a the sights and sounds of Christmas with a complimentary hayride through thousands of lights, displays, Bethlehem Village and a live Nativity Scene.

• Have that special talk with Santa (Pictures available at a reasonable cost).

• Visit the “Kids Only” shop - children 12 & under can purchase gifts for family and friends for $1 each – gift wrap included.

• Visit the animals in our petting zoo.

• Browse the “General Store” – handmade crafts, homemade baked goods, preserves and jams, jewelry, gift baskets and Christmas decorations.

• Don’t forget to get some boiled peanuts before you leave!

Macedonia United Methodist Church is located ¼ mile off the Camak exit on I-20 on Highway 80 North. From Thomson travel Cedar Rock Road approximately 7 miles just beyond the intersection with Highway 80 near the Camak I-20 exit. For more info, call office at 465-9607.

Multi Ethnic Fellowship as a Visible Sign of God's Kingdom

Part of the reason I am enjoying my ministry is that I am WAY in over my head in the deep end of the pool!

This doesn't speak so much to the church ministry (since I've been doing this sort of work for 20 years-- though there are days!) but is the truth about campus ministry. The good of it is that I am not merely repeating what United Methodists have traditionally done in college & university ministries. Instead, I've tried to listen to students and follow God. This has resulted in some of the most exciting work of my life as we have entered into all sorts of relationships with students at this critical stage in their life and faith journey.

A key component of our campus ministry is that we are a good reflection of the university and the community. Said another way, we are not merely a group of suburban white college students sponsored by a predominately white denomination. Instead, our group reflects the beautiful diversity of our area, of God's people, and of our world.

This is not to suggest there aren't challenges. We are still learning what it means to be together, to grow together, and to engage more students in our group. Truth be told, we probably can't even agree on music that the whole group would like! Yet, there is something special about such a multi ethnic bunch that surely must be a sign of heaven! This must be the way God wants us to do business as we prepare ourselves for heaven, and as we help our world become more like our anticipated destination.

See the link below about someone in Arkansas who is further along in facilitating a multi ethnic church:

http://www.churchleadership.com/leadingideas/leaddocs/2008/081203_article.html

Religion as Root of Violence??

I've recently blogged about the challenges of many people of faith in India, and was reluctant to say anything about the recent horror of the terrorist attack in Mumbai. This thought provoking religious editorial from the perspective of a pastor who served in Mumbai is worth your consideration:

http://gbgm-umc.org/global_news/full_article.cfm?articleid=5241

My Village View

In early November a missionary we support in Honduras was in town and shared an update on their story. She showed some pictures and explained their work with children and families in the mountains of central Honduras. Rhonda stated that the biggest challenge was the people "don't think outside their little village." I like the double meaning in the statement. She meant the people learn a certain way of thinking, talking, and living in their village and that status quo habit is tough to expand or change.

Yeah, I can see that. I'm afraid I'm guilty as well. Seems like part of our condition doesn't it?

"They don't think out of their little village."