last post before Egypt

Don't know if I will have anything to share before I take off Wed for Egypt. I am looking forward to the courage that I have heard of among the Christian churches there. 2% of the population. A big church is 200 members. Yet, they don't worry about money or numbers. They just do what God calls them to do.

We already know how. We just need the courage.

Egypt trip

If interested, here is background on what our group of 9 clergy will be visiting in Egypt Feb 1-17- David Loar

CEOSS Coptic Evangelical Organization for Social Services our host

Garbage City
Christian Science Monitor article
UNESCO work among the children of the city
CNN article

Alexandria
We will visit El Saray Church and its minister the Rev. Gendi Ibrahim Riszk who is a close friend of the Rev. Harry Eberts, former pastor of Westminster Presbyterian Church. They are a church of no more than 200 members and a very limited budget, and yet their ministry to the community is amazing!
http://www.biblelands.org.uk/project_partners/by_location/egypt/el_saray_church/
http://geocities.com/saraychurch/

Cairo
El Kolaly Church and its minister the Rev. Emil Zaki
http://www.desmoineswithegypt.org/egyptpartners.htm#Coptic

Giza Pyramids
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/pyramid/explore/
http://www.culturefocus.com/egypt_pyramids.htm

Sphinx
http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/sphinx1.htm

Stepped Pyramid at Sakkara
http://interoz.com/egypt/stepyram.htm

Pyramids Sound and Light Show remember James Bond and the Spy Who Loved Me?

Sultan Hassan Mosque

cruise the Nile
Luxor
Greek Temple of Horus
Kom Ombo temple
Aswan
Philae Temple

hey, that was my idea!

I have thought for some time about how to make my yard less about lawn care and more about plants and vegetables. Well, check out edible estates. I love this. They are starting to help urban home owners turn their yards into full time garden/farm producing settings. I think this is going to be a well used site for me as I move more to the summer.

how do we decide & why do we decide

Our congregation has gone through major change in the last 6 years. A great deal by intention and some by happenstance. In the past few years we have questioned greatly our governing structure and whether the way we discern for making decisions reflects the values that we truly seek to live and communicate as disciples of Jesus Christ. But we are unsure of how to shift out of the Robert's Rules of Order/majority vote process that we are all ingrained with. Not to abandon that fully, but we are not finding in that process a comfort level with what it does to us both as a community of faith and the time and energy it drains from keeping focused on what we consider to be the central vision and mission that God has given us.

My Monday Discipling Group has discussed for a few weeks the discernment process as described by Parker Palmer and shared across the church in the U.S. by Worshipful-Work. We are seeking to help our congregation to become aware of, to understand more fully and to possibly consider a more deliberate, spiritual discerning process in the ways we open ourselves to fulfill God's mission.

Some other onlines resources:
The Alchemy of Corporate Discernment by Rosemary Daugherty of the Shalem Institute
Discernment: Finding God's Will in a Sea of Nonsense by Robert Longman
Blog by Brian Rice of his personal journey as a pastor of a church with coming to use this process

the open space

I hit another "open space" in posting to this blog. I just didn't find the interest or the importance to post here.

Here's a link for a vital resource for us in the church - The Leadership Network...check this place out.

Here are some free online video blogs on evangelism and the 21st Century.

Dear God, we are like sheep lost in the wilderness. We seek you and want to serve and honor you. Yet, we can't force things to work out the way we want. We are lost. You've heard that before...for how many generations? We are not the first. We won't be the last. May we realize that we are simply in this moment, lost and wanting to be found. Amen.

Book of Daniel

Well, I think I saw "Soap" in reruns last night. The hype around the new NBC-TV program "The Book of Daniel" I think was only to get us to watch. Duh! I got a headache in the first hour with all the crises going on. This family wasn't simply dysfunctional. They all need at least 6 weeks of treatment. Not one person had any level of healthy boundaries. Jesus was more like a "good buddy" (or as Martha [my wife] said to me - Jiminey Cricket as your conscience.) I didn't see much spirituality in it, let alone Christian spirituality. Having been part of two clergy families - the one I grew up in and my present family...none of the issues or roles that were played out seem anywhere near realistic. You had to have some familiarity with Episcopal church governance and roles to figure out some of the things (as best I can figure, Daniel's father the bishop, is retired and he is having an affair with the woman who is the present bishop.) The only thing that really touched me was the retired bishop's wife struggle with alzheimers. Even one of the best lines of the program was plagarized...when Jesus tells Daniel "You know I don't work like that." Bill Cosby said it far better over 35 years ago in his comic routine of Noah and God.

In this show you get the impression that being part of the church, it is all about you. Jesus is more like a sidekick to try to straighten you out, to have some relaxed conversations with, and to remind you in a nice way when you aren't doing things right. There was no sense of authority. In fact there was no authority, which probably reflects the view of the writer who is an athiest. And he has his right to try to sell a tv show to entertain folks in any context he desires, if the ads can be sold and the audience is large enough. So...I probably will only watch it myself on Fridays when I want to watch tv and I am dialing around the channels. Or if I want to find out how wacked out any of the characters have gotten over time.

I have always felt that the folks who claimed religious bias in the media...particularly in respect to the Catholic Church, have been out of bounds. I always thought they were thin skinned. But I have to say having the Catholic priest using his past connections with the Mob to track down the millions of dollars stolen by Daniel's brother-in-law, I think the protesters have a point. After 31 years in ministry and 57 years as part of a clergy family with great ecumenical relationships including with priests of the Catholic Church - no way! This isn't fair.

I take at face value what the writer of the show said, it isn't about religion in any fashion. The religious context is just a backdrop to play out what he calls is a normal dysfunctional family. I take offense at that! The folks in this show are beyond dysfunction. Yep, many, many families have our issues. But not like this.

BTW, does anyone know who got voted off "Dancing With the Stars" last night?