A SPECIAL COMMENT: Time for KO to take a Standing Eight Count

I'm a fan of Keith Olbermann.

Have been for a long time. Watch "Countdown" regularly. Being among that first generation to embrace ESPN - "The Big Show" was a big deal.

There are more than a few of his "Special Comments" embedded on this site. As a wordsmith, he is unmatched.

Coupling his wit with libertarian passion has been refreshing in the dark night of our nation's soul these past years.

And it's time for him to catch a breath. As we are all want to do - he is becoming what he most despised.

Whatever Murrow-esque clarity that emerged through Comments centered on then Sec. Def. Rumseld to death of Habeas Corpus - it was the crystal clarity of truth cutting through the spun fog of war, confusion and fear.

But enough already.

The O'Reilly thing is petty. Why waste so much energy on a dope?

We get it, he doesn't think W should be in office.

The once refreshing "zeal" is now really starting to resemble the ravings of Howard Beale, from "Network," something that even he enjoyed in parody.

No, it not only is starting to look like it, it's really starting to sound like it.

His most recent comments on Hillary Clinton' invoking RFK's assassination (while inappropriately stated can hardly be considered conspiratorial) and then Katie Couric's assertion that sexism had a role in Hillary's campaign demise (which he dismissed way too quickly in defense of a fellow reporter because of the one who levied it) is a reach that does not serve him well.

Go to Countdown's website and see for yourself.

And then it hit me.

I wonder if he now thinks he has to come up with a rant to be relevant. I know what it's like when you feel like you have to come up with something to say.

It comes off empty, forced--whatever truth exposed is now muted by a healthy dose of ego that's fully in the way.

So KO, I love ya buddy - but take a step back, gain some perspective - especially with an election on the horizon.

You're better than what you've been spewing.

Good night, and good luck.

It's My Journey - Get Your Own

I started this blog 3 years ago. I've offered comment on a lot of different thing in that time. Politics, the church, my life with all its joys and pains.

Over the years many of you have jumped in and offered your thoughts - words of support, taking me to task for points of view that swirled in my head.

But nothing, and I mean nothing has brought more response than my most previous post.

Evidently, "Journey" nation has taken umbrage at my thoughts concerning the current incarnation of the band.

Since that post went up about 36 hours ago - that post alone has had over 250 hits.

Now understand - 15 to 20 hits a day, across the whole blog is normal.

In the words of Frank Barone, "Holy crap!" (I'm sure that'll get the Raymond devotees upset).

Researching the sources of all the energy around little ole me- it appears that someone took a snapshot of that post and uploaded it to YouTube.



Whoever the guy is who did this said, in effect, "Sic 'em."

And they have.

Look people - Arnel Pineda has a great voice and an even greater story - I wish him well.

It's just not my "Journey."

I'm content to have my Journey wrapped up in my past, and that looked and sounded a certain way in my memory.

A Pristine "Journey"

My sister and I saw Journey in concert at the Mid-South Coliseum in 1980. They were just starting to hit, and it was just before they would explode.

For those who have interest, "The Babys" was the opening act. What happened that night at the Coliseum and how we got home is the stuff of story that probably can't be shared here, but suffice it to say, to this day when Jerri Ann and I talk about it, we both laugh and wonder how we made it home.

Journey is one of the handful of bands that accompanied me from high school into adulthood.

They are a very talented bunch, and I'm of the opinion that Neal Schon is among the most talented and under appreciated guitarists around.

In the fall of 1981, I took part in the UN-Washington Seminar as a high school senior, travelling via bus from the Laurelwood Shopping Center across from Christ UMC to D.C. and then to NYC, to Niagara Falls and back to Memphis. Journey's "Escape" was played on the jam box's tape deck so many times through that trip that I'm pretty sure there was some sort of brainwashing and conditioning going on.

The band's front man, Steve Perry, could bring it. I didn't look a thing like him, but I dug the tenor voice and fancied myself a bit a tenor who could get it done, too, if you know what I mean.

A slow dance with my girlfriend singing, "Open Arms, " in her ear---Magic!

I share the back story to share this - Journey has a new album out.

No problem.

They have a new front man. No problem.

Believe me, I'm in a band, I get it.

It's Neil and Jonathan's band- you gotta do what you gotta do. Cetera left Chicago. Gabriel left Genesis. Roth left Van Halen, then rejoined them, then didn't, and then did, and somewhere in there is the Red Rocker - it happens.

The problem is not the new album, at least the disc one of "Revelation."

It's disc two.

Disc two is Journey "covering" Journey's hits with the new guy, who sounds enough like Steve Perry to be scary, fronting the band.

Now, why do that?

To devoted Journey fans, why have the new guy, who will have to sing the old songs in concert anyway, cover the old tunes in such a way as to erase Steve's presence from the group and his history with it?

After all, it's Perry's voice the new guy is emulating - no doubt about it.

Funny thing, the human animal - the capacity to rewrite history in such a way that if you say it was so long enough and loud enough, even though it wasn't, people will believe it anyway.

Well, Steve, I ain't a forgetting you brother. I feel sure you were a pain in the butt in the band, but those pipes get you a pass in my book. I wish the new guy well with the new material - but the classic stuff? That belongs to you, and the memories of what my encounters with that music brought cannot be bought by an attempt to redux.

Got to Get Away

In the past month I've been gone, that is, out of town, for total of about a week and a half.

One of my staff asked me if I had enjoyed my vacation - "Vacation? That was work," I said in a tone that I'm pretty sure was a whole lot more defensive than I meant for it to be.

"Well," he said, "it was a vacation from here."

True enough, I supposed, but it was not vacation.

A continuing education event and our annual conference - not the stuff of "holiday."

And while I've "been away" doing work related things, there is a deeper, hidden truth - if I don't "get away," and soon, I'm going to go nuts.

I've got to get away, with my family, from the expectations and obligations of our lives here, if only for a short time. As complicated as our lives are when here (and by complicated, I don't mean bad - just complicated), to be anywhere else together gives us the opportunity to connect differently.

And that's the thing, isn't it? With every relationship - partner, friend, child - there is an essential need to make new and different connections to foster vitality. Otherwise, we merely become the roles we play in relationship and not live in the intimacy of being in relationship.

So, I've got to hit the road - got to get to the beach, the place where the best medicine for my soul comes. I've got to fish off the dock behind the cottage. I've got to go tubing with the boys, spend a day at the Big Kahuna and maybe, just maybe - have a date with my wife.

Just under two weeks before we hit the road, squeezed by the anticipation of going and the load of work to be accomplished before leaving - I'm in that tumultuous place that happens to any of us living in the "almost, but not yet."

There's also the price to be paid for going at all. That price exacted upon return. You know how that goes - ever said "I need a vacation from my vacation" when you get back and try to catch up?

But some prices are worth paying - and this is one of them.

In the meantime - breathe, Johnny, breathe - be patient - time is coming.

Radical? Really?

The word is "radical."

I've heard it spoken multiple times over the past several days.

The word following it was "hospitality."

It served as the "theme" for the 2008 session of The Memphis Annual Conference. Our gathering just adjourned yesterday.

"Radical Hospitality," one of the 5 Practices of Fruitful Congregations, a book by Bishop Schnase, is all the rage right now. As Churches lose their way - they become desperate for something to "do" to stem the tide.

Bishop Schnase's book is a helpful, compact guide to open the awareness for any who seek to tap into the characteristics of vital congregational life.

My concern, however, is how easily the word "radical" rolled off the tongues of any and all who employed it during the Conference. Something that should challenge, prod, push our comfort zones and boundaries - something that should make any and all of us squirm was invoked as an action plan.

As it is with so many things in the church - this is going to be a church "program."

You don't just "do" radical hospitality - you must first have a heart to be radically hospitable. Sure, we all have things to "do" in our congregations to be more welcoming to any and all who come to us - and those things must always have proper priority.

Radical hospitality is of the sort that causes folks to squirm because it welcomes those nobody else will - those with labels, those with reputations that are not always favorable, those whose presence, not only in our worship, but in our own lives, cause us to question the preconceptions we've placed on them not because we know them, but because we know what we think how "people like that" are.

Jesus associated with these folks - and who was hacked off? Religious folks. To program radical hospitality and not make it incarnate is to vitiate it of its power and Gospel witness. And to be hospitable in the name of Jesus without being radical is to homogenize it (as we do we so much of the Gospel) and make it too palatable.

Make no mistake about it. Homogenized hospitality will yield homogeneous congregations - something we have an overabundance of right now.

Even the artwork of our Conference, while integrating elements of the cover of Bishop's Schnase's book, to communicate something natural, organic and alive, could easily be interpreted as "Radical Hospitality" wrapped in camoflouge - which is to say present, but hidden.

Radical comes from the word from which we get "root." Too many of us think of radical as being whacked out - on the fringe. Radical hospitality is the opposite - it moves us to the essential nature of our being - the foundation of who we are. And for the Christian community, that root can be none other than Jesus of Nazareth.

Which brings me to the "why' of radical hospitality. It felt, more than once, that we were being told to practice "radical hospitality" as a means through which we might realize church growth and renewal. That may be true, but it should not be seen as a means to an end - it loses its authenticity otherwise.

There's way too much "means to an end" thinking in church leadership anyway. Results and the ways of Jesus are not synonymous. They can be in sync, but they are not always congruent. In fact the way of Jesus is the harder path. Always.

A church that is radically hospitable will grow and find new life. The radical part is that it will grow in ways it can 't expect or predict. The truer measure of just how radical your hospitality is not if you grow numerically - but if you grow by shrinking.

Jesus did teach about pruning the vine, did he not?

The challenge is that churches have to ask whether it wants any part of that. If it doesn't (and I suspect most really don't want to be too radical) then they'll delude themselves into thinking that new signs and visitor forms will bring them more members and call that hospitality.

But if a community of Jesus' companions truly does practice it, in all its "radical-ness," the "Gospel" will be lived. Lives will be changed. The stranger will be welcomed as family.

And the "religious folks" will still grumble.

Woodstock for Preachers - Day 1

Greetings from Minneapolis, where I'm participating in the Festival of Homiletics. Last year was my first time at this event that has now run for 16 years. I found it remarkably fresh and something my soul sorely needed.

I had not considered coming this year for some time. Last year was in Nashville - a quick jaunt up I-40. But Minneapolis? Seemed like it might be too much.

But my brother in ministry and Glad River bandmate, Rob, was determined to come this year, and it placed in my thoughts real prospect that I might find a way to go.

And I'm here.

Minneapolis in late May and Memphis in May are not the same thing.

So, here I am at the Festival of Homiletics, which I've determined is "Woodstock for Preachers (absent the free drugs and love - I hope! Uggh - kill me now)." All you have to do is watch this bunch of clergy, some 2,100 of us, and it is the stuff of sociological, if not anthropological study. And it's clear that how many of these you've attended creates a caste system of how "in" or connected folks think they are.

We can be a pitiable lot.

You don't have to ask a long time attendee how many times they've been - they'll tell you first.

And then there are others - a group in which I place myself, who are starving for something to guide, to challenge, to inspire and to feed them. Having known times when the spiritual well was flowing freely, at these events we drill for new wellsprings to refresh parched spirits longing for the day to know it again.

Coupled with that deep desire is knowing all too well that it is we, who are clergy - we who preach, that so many deep and devoted people are looking for the same thing on Sundays that I'm looking for this week.

You can't be a container of grace to be outpoured if there's a hole in the bottom of the pitcher.

Some thoughts after the opening night.

We experienced a concert from the National Lutheran Choir. They were absolutely and completely stunning. As "tight" vocally as I've ever heard with dynamic control that is simply unmatched. It was a wonder to behold.

Tom Long lectured on preaching paths for the Gospel of Mark - which is the primary Gospel for the next Christian year.

Anna Carter Florence preached on "Mary and Martha." A rich sermon, to be sure, and one that struck me deeply. Besides that of it that I'll "borrow," I was convicted at the notion of "distraction," a feature of that reading -

41But the Lord answered her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; 42there is need of only one thing.* Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.’

The very mention of distraction - distraction from the One who calls me - hit me tonight. Life is so much distraction, and mine has been abundant. I'm not talking about life itself - the stuff of life comes and goes. Business, schedules, three places to be at once, and the expectations that come from each.

As tiring as that can be, I can deal with that. No, I felt the realization that my distractions were of the inner life - and if nothing else happens this week than that I was confronted with that truth and awakened to it, then the effort of this week is well spent.

Maybe that is "the one thing" I'm needing right now.

A May Potpourri

A few random thoughts on a number of different issues:

Evidently, to be seen as a credible political candidate, you have to "denounce" your preacher.

Recent admittedly inflammatory, if not conspiratorial comments by Rev'd Dr. Wright have demanded a response from the political candidate who used to call him pastor, or spiritual advisor, or person he only sorta once knew. It all gets to be a bit much after awhile, doesn't it? I'm the first to make it clear that we clergy are not perfect and that some of us relish our "humanity" a bit more than others. Some of us heed well the maxim of the great Protestant Reformer, Martin Luther, who said that if we were to sin, then "sin boldly."

I'm not going to parse what Dr. Wright said or didn't say. Frankly, I was surprised he was silent as long as he was, but when he spoke, brother came out swinging, didn't he? Think about it - would you want the sum of your professional life reduced to a few words?

But one word of caution - it is easy to dismiss larger truths when they are wrapped in what appears to be rambling, if not at times irrational rhetoric. One thing's for certain, he didn't need any help from the YouTuber's who looped sound bites out of context - he can get it plenty stirred up on his own in context. But as I alluded in a previous post, to dismiss the prophet completely is to dismiss what the prophet points toward.

So if any of my congregants run for office (again), I give you blanket permission up front to "denounce" me if it helps the cause. But if denouncing me helps your cause, I have to wonder if your cause is one I'd want to be a part of anyway.

*******

The first of the month brought with it an anniversary. We passed the one year anniversary of my intentional efforts to get my weight down and live a healthier life. For about six months, I was a “JC”man - right there with the girls from "Cheers" and "One Day at a Time."

And I hated it.

Nice enough folks, to be sure - but in the end, the issue with JC is the cost against the basic tenet they preach. It's not nutrition so much (although that's there), but portion control.

During that time, I logged my progress on this blog. I did it as much as a means to make me be accountable at a time when it was clear that I was not able to do it on my own. I've appreciated the words of encouragement and support that helped assuage the powerful self-loathing I was experiencing for allowing myself to get into such a mess.

Since October of 2007, I've managed and progressed on my own. I've not weighed in some time. My guess, based on how I was charting before I stopped weighing weekly, is a total loss thus far of between 45-50 lbs. But the measure I go by is how I feel, and the daily-ness of being aware of what I'm eating. A regular day for me has me eating 1,750 calories. A splurge is 2,500.

And then there's this -

Today, Kristy told me to go into Andrew's room and pack up some clothes he can't wear anymore to take to Neighborhood Centers. In that stack was a pair of short that he wore last Summer for our family portrait on the beach. 34" waist. I figured, what the heck, let's see what happens. I had already achieved one goal and made it so I could wear 36" waist jeans again (I'm wearing a pair even right now as I write this). So, with the shorts, one leg in - so far so good, the other...uhh, a bit snug but they're on. And now, the moment of truth --yes, I fastened them. No, I can't wear them out of the house. I won't wear them in the house, not yet---but those shorts are not going to Neighborhood Centers. Nope, I put them in my drawer. August, 2008. That's my goal.

*******

And speaking of my beloved Andrew...
guess who's driving now on the streets of Memphis and Shelby County?

One more rite of passage to be sure. It's fun watching him transition from utter fear at the prospect of driving at all to asking virtually every time we get into the car, "can I drive?" Funny how one goes from willingness to receive any and all instruction to looks of dismissal at the very notion that we, the experienced drivers have anything to offer.

But watching him drive (and, by the way, he drives more with his mother than with me - wonder if that means anything?) it occurs to me that my family is growing up - right in front of my eyes. And I wonder how am I growing as a man, a father and husband - how am I growing as a pastor, now over 20 years under appointment? To stop growing, or even to try to be more than what we were is to be complacent with what we are - and no where in the Gospel do I get the indication that Jesus gives us room for that.

One more step on the journey.

This day.

Every day.