Individuals are singular wholes made up of many parts, but are also parts in the larger whole of congregations. Congregations similarly are whole entities, in themselves, but are also parts of larger wholes (denominations/conferences/etc.)

Congregations, as whole-entities (which are also parts of larger entities), develop in organic and predictable ways just like people do.

There seems to be evidence that the predictability of the congregational life cycle is very stable – perhaps even universal.

All of that said, one of the fundamental aspects of life-stage theories (as I understand them, though I’m no expert) is the idea that upon truly (or healthily – depending on the theory) entering a new stage, one cannot revert to a previous one. Although one can experience a later (or earlier) state without actually entering the stage, that’s different concept.

I’m wondering what you think about that?

I’m currently reading an excellent book that splits the congregational life-cycle into 8 (7) stages:

The Establishing Stage
The Formation and Formatting Stage
The Adolescence Stage
The Prime Stage
The Maturity Stage
The Aristocracy Stage (not all congregations go through this one)
The Bureaucracy Stage
The Dissolution Stage

Here’s my dissonance: While I agree that the stages are predictable and consistent across the board, I have a problem believing that once a congregation passes (for example) the “Prime” stage, that everything’s essentially downhill from there.

Thoughts?

Is the life-cycle of a congregation linear (once you pass a stage you cannot return to it)?

Is the life-cycle of a congregation cyclical (you can cycle back from a “later stage” to a REformation and REformatting stage and eventually enter a new Prime?)

Something else?

Grace and peace,
`tim

First, and hear this well, this is not a book for those of you who are easily upset by “liberals” who “have no values or standards” (she isn’t one of them – she has values and standards, but if you’re that kind of a person, you will find her frustrating). She panders too much to her target audience. Her snippy comments and biting judgments are often overly harsh and she doesn’t distinguish well (or at all, in most cases) between Christians (as a whole) and the Evangelical sub-culture she attacks.

Having said that, if you can get past her constantly playing to her own corner, this is a book you need to read. I have long been frustrated by my colleagues and friends who attempt (usually unintentionally) to hang young women’s worth on their “purity” and to (as Valenti puts it) “obsess” over virginity, sex, abstinence, and abstinence only education. No one’s worth should be defined by their decision to (or not to) do a particular act (regardless of what that act is). I don’t believe (as Valenti argues) that virginity is a made-up concept, but I do fully agree with her that by over-focusing on it, many corners of Christianity have done women and society a powerful disservice.

She discusses purity pledges, purity balls, the ownership culture (i.e. where fathers, and then husbands “own” their wives), rape, pornography, our society’s unhealthy obsession with young women and a variety of related topics in a clear, straight-forward way that, although it would make most – if not all of the readers of this blog uncomfortable – recognizes the innate creepiness of much of it and the outright harm it does. She also footnotes her writing extensively in case you wonder where she’s getting some of the stuff she says (although many of the footnotes are online resources – some of which are more believable than others).

If you read my blog regularly, you will likely declare Valenti “off the deep end.” I don’t care. Read this book anyhow. Seriously. If you know me at all, you know that I never believe the ends justify the means – she clarifies, with precision, just exactly how the “means” used by many Christians have been problematic even if the “ends” they seek occasionally make sense.

Grace and Peace,
`tim

Enter the idea of turning your blog into a book.

The problem with that? Books are expensive and blogs are ever-changing.

Enter the website Blogbooker. With almost no effort, Blogbooker will convert your blog (if you use WordPress or LiveJournal) into a single .pdf file. And best of all? It’s free! Yeah… free!

You can’t format or do anything particularly exciting with it, but it does backup your entire blog in a single, reasonably small file. Even better? It does it quickly.

Check it out. That’s b l o g b o o k e r [dot] c o m.

Grace and Peace,
`tim

Upon graduating from seminary, new ministers quickly learn that one of their most unwieldy tasks will be maintaining some sense of order in an ever-increasing library. Even more importantly for those who do extensive reading, is the ability to find a quick and helpful way to “remind” oneself about the positive (and negative) qualities of a book without taking the time to re-read it.

With that problem in mind, I developed the STRIP system. It is nothing dynamic or difficult (and, for that matter, could probably be improved on), but it can be easily printed on a label and placed on the inside cover of a book allotting each book a numerical “grade” by which I can remind myself about its content (Note: the numerical “grade” does not necessarily indicate “good” or “bad”). The label is simple:

Enjoy.

Grace and Peace,
`tim

I don’t know if anyone else would find it helpful, but here’s how I do it:

This evening I ripped The Celtic Way of Evangelism. It wasn’t as great of a book as I had hoped, but it did have some good content. If you’re interested, here’s what my final product looked like (.pdf).

I know the process doesn’t have much finesse – it’s more skill than art; but I’ve developed it through use and it works well for me — feel free to steal it if it’s helpful!

You might also consider STRIPping books too (an equally as self-developed method I use for evaluating them) – I’ll post instructions on that later.

Grace and peace,
`tim

Having made that little confession, it’s worth noting that I haven’t gone to see Twilight (nor have I read the books).  Maybe I’ll see it eventually (on DVD); I don’t know – I’m not terribly “into” teenybopper movies.

That said, I was cruising the blog-o-sphere and ran into a post by clairie_b (I don’t think I know who she is… her blog was on the roll of one of my other friend’s blogs) and loved her description of the book:

check it out here

Isn’t that great!  Guess I’m going to have to keep checking out her blog!
Grace and Peace,

`tim

A couple of weeks ago I read about (and promptly ordered on Amazon) a book entitled Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.  The concept is simple:  You make enough for 4 (1#) loaves of bread and keep the dough in the fridge until you want to bake it.  It’s a very high moisture dough so it stays “fresh,” it requires NO kneading, NO punching down, NO traditional rising.  You do “cloak” the loaves and let them rest for 40 minutes (that’s the recommendation, I’ve found it’s not long enough).  [Incidentally the 40 minutes doesn't count in your "5 minutes a day" since you don't have to actively be doing anything for the bread during it.]

To make a long story short, I’ve been working the recipe for about 2 weeks now – that’s been about 4 batches (each creating 4 loaves).  The loaves are smaller than “normal” but that’s fine since you simply bake a new one when you’re ready (the dough can sit in the fridge for up to 2 weeks!)

The problem is, I’ve been getting WAY too much oven spring (i.e. I get unsightly bread-tumors breaking through my loaves.)  I think my problem was 3-fold: 1) I wasn’t using enough steam, and 2) the 40 minutes wasn’t long enough, and 3) I hadn’t been scoring it deep enough.  In any case, I’ve been playing with it and finally got what I consider the “perfect” loaf this morning! It even “sang” a perfect near-opera when I pulled it out of the oven!

It’s fortunate and unfortunate since I as baking the loaf to give away.   It’s the perfect loaf to give, but it’s sad to see it go….

If you’re a bread person, I’d definately recommend the book.  The authors also have a (pretty basic) website/blog at:

http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/

Grace and Peace,

`tim

Knowing that this season was just around the corner, I picked up a little booklet by Goosberry Patch (Cookbooklet #19) entitled “hot cocoa.” It’s an entire booklet with recipes for making – yep you guessed it – hot cocoa. Unfortunately several of the recipes start with “chocolate drink mix” which seems to be cheating and kind of grates on me, but one of them that doesn’t is the “Spiced Hot Cocoa Mix” on page 18.

It’s not as creamy as hot cocoa “should be” and I’m all about Splenda, so here’s my revised version. Enjoy!

Mix all ingredients in a 1-gallon plastic bag:

• 1 1/3 c. Splenda
• 2 c. Powdered Milk
• 1 c. Baking Cocoa
• 3 Tbs. Instant Espresso Powder
• 1/2 tsp. Cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp. Cardamom
• 1 (10.2 oz) container of French Vanilla Coffee Mate (I use the sugar free)

Put 1/4 c. in about a cup of hot water. mmmm… Gotta love winter!

Grace and Peace,

`tim

It’s a difficult question to answer. How does a consistory evaluate the effectiveness of a congregation’s ministry? There are a number of ways: income, numeric growth, baptisms, involvement, etc., etc. We’ve decided to evaluate according to the three pillars of the Isaiah Agenda. I’ve recommended The Isaiah Vision before – and let me recommend it to you again if you haven’t read it. It’s VERY good. If you look at the original post, you’ll see there are three aspects to the idea:

• The Isaiah agenda (From Is. 65.20-23),
• Invitation to worship, and
• Invitation to discipleship.

Our version of it is a little more broad:

• Ministry to others
• Worship
• Discipleship & Devotion

The idea is simple. Without being legalistic, we can agree that the scriptures promote these three things for each and every single believer. In other words, there is a problem if someone does not value (and, in some way, participate in) each of these three things. Of course, it’ll look different from individual to individual and family to family, and there are a myriad of ways these three priorities can be expressed and embraced, but the idea is simple: our “job” as a board of elders (and a consistory, as a whole) is to do what we can to ensure every member of our congregation (and “member” here is a very broad term) embraces all three to as great of a degree as possible.

I have been encouraged (in a healthy way) by the elders to begin “afflicting the comfortable” as strongly as possible toward these three things which induces a certain amount of nervousness but also immense excitement. We’ve discussed this with the entire consistory and expect a certain amount of resistance but are all on the same page (what a great feeling!)

This approach is both easily evaluated and, I think, broad enough to prevent a legalistic (“check-list style”) approach.

Did I mention that I’m excited?

I wonder what the next year is going to look like?!

Grace and Peace,

`tim

“I don’t mean to be rude–” [Harry's jerk-of-an-uncle] began, in a tone that threatened rudeness in every syllable.

“– yet, sadly, accidental rudeness occurs alarmingly often,” Dumbledore finished the sentence gravely. “Best to say nothing at all, my dear man….”

From page 46

Wonderful, isn’t it?!

“Sadly, accidental rudeness occurs alarmingly often”

JKR sometimes hits the nail directly on the head….

Grace and Peace,

`tim