The Men’s Breakfast

Yesterday morning I attended a Men’s Breakfast.

It takes a lot of dedication and sacrifice to be at the church at 7:00 AM for something like this. The people who do so are part of the church core; the pillars of the assembly; the very salt of the earth. As the sun is breaking over the hills — or over the lake depending on the time of year — the people who show up for early morning events like this are the best of the best. Without wishing to induce pride, this is the spiritual bedrock of the church.

Fortunately for me however, this event begins at 8:30.

It’s a much more humane hour, and basically all the guys show up. A good half, anyway. Specifically, there were eleven of us. It’s a small town. It’s a small church.

I was telling my wife who was there, and then I asked her if she had any ideas for this morning’s blog post.

“You can’t get a blog post out of that;” she replied taking the two subject as somehow linked.

Oh really? I took that as a dare.

Here we go: Bob, Ken (who runs the meetings), Harry, Jeff (the Pastor), Jean-Claude (not to be confused with Jean-Luc, the former Star Trek captain), Peter, Randy (who spoke), Gary (who arrived by bicycle), Mike, Roger (who was late), and myself.

(Should have placed a bet with her.)

That gives you a picture of what it looked like…

I grew up megachurch. The men’s meetings were held monthly on Monday nights and attracted about 200 guys.

Somehow this is more meaningful.

(I’ll save what Randy spoke about for a future post, as I want to be able to share it well.)

 

Bad Bible Study Bingo

I was going to use this yesterday on the link list, but it really deserves a post of its own. This was posted almost exactly two years ago on the Facebook page of TwentyOneHundred Productions, the media division of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship.

I think we’ve all been to Bible studies like this where some people should really get a “delaying the game” penalty. Perhaps we’ve even been the culprits. Yeah, definitely been found among the culprits…

Wednesday Link List

Link and the world links with you…  The cartoon? See item 4 below:

• First and foremost here this week: Pray for blogger Keith Brenton and family.
• Here’s an obscure 2009 blog post that proves that pastors do indeed get asked the toughest questions. Betcha never heard this one.
• So that everyone gets a fair start to the race, here’s a five minute video as to how to become a Pope. 
• Peter Enns notes that the bloggers are again off and running, criticizing the Rob Bell book they haven’t read. 
• Save Saeed: Over 333,000 individuals have signed the petition to save American Pastor Saeed Abedini; imprisoned in Iran. He is cut off from contact from his wife and young children; he has no voice.  Yet, each time someone signs the petition for his freedom, they lend their voice to the fight for his freedom.
  
• Essay of the Week: Jenny Rae Armstrong — The Missionaries Brought the Bread of Life But We Choked on the Packaging.
• Not every day I click over to the religion page at Canada’s National Post and see a giant picture of Larry Norman.
• The Amish are buying power tools. Sort of. This a link to a five-minute NPR (audio) story recorded at an Amish trade show. There’s also a written report on Amish computers.
• A researcher discovers a classic 19th century hymnal with “social justice themes … reflected in hymns protesting against child labour and slavery.” And hymns lamenting “unrighteous taxes.”
  
• A Florida student is forced to change out of a t-shirt that encouraged abstinence into one that raised its own moral questions.
• While these articles abound online, someone reading this right now may need to look at these six warning signs of depression. 
• Anabaptist theology is becoming… well… trendy. Here’s one blogger’s list of those who he considers either recent or long-term members of the Anabaptist camp. (Some of them unofficially…)
• You might never find this on an album, so enjoy Steve Bell’s song to his wife on their 30th anniversary.
  
• We mentioned professor John Walton here a while back, here’s a 30-minute video of him teaching on the book of Job. 
• Not sure if I’ve linked to this before or not: In its third year, the online Dictionary of Christianese. Here’s an example of the detail they get into with the phrase red-letter Christian.
  
• BibleGateway.com has added The Voice — a translation using dramatic script style — to its list of available Bible versions. Users of the online service get instructions in how to use this unique text.
• Know a worship leader looking for ideas? You can’t do better than clicking all the links in the comments section of this week’s Sunday Setlists.
• Also worship related: A New Zealander analyzes the CCLI Top 25 list for his country to see where popular worship songs originate.
  
• Or how about a written response to that currently popular video on writing a worship song.
• And now, courtesy of Ron Edmondson, we pause for a word to the small town pastor.
• Got a question about Satan aka Lucifer aka The Devil? Michael Patton provides some answers that I 98% agree with.  Okay 99.
• Here’s a very detailed album review of Zion, the newest from Hillsong United.
• Our cartoon is a favorite around here, Mike Morgan’s For Heaven’s Sake. If you don’t get the punchline click this.