Anti-hate Ads Appearing In NYC Subway

The United Methodist Women, Sojourners, and Rabbis for Human Rights, have joined forces to fund subway ads that counter the recent anti-Islam ones in New York City subways. Some ads appear next to the anti-Islam ones.

One pro-tolerance poster reads, "Hate speech is not civilized. Support peace in word and deed". (The anti-Islam poster had used the phrase "civilized man").

“We think that respectful dialogue is absolutely important and that the work for peace is very difficult,” said UMW CEO Harriet Olson in an interview with Transportation Nation. “Incendiary speech [as in the anti-Islam posters] is not the way to get there.”

We cannot achieve true Shalom with hearts full of hatred.

• United Methodist Women Unveils Ad Countering Hate Speech in New York City Subway (UMW)
• Read the full article at "Transportation Nation"

UMC's path not sustainable

The final report of the Call to Action Interim Operations Team, says that the United Methodist Church's way of doing business is “unsustainable,” and that the changes made during and immediately after the recent 2012 General Conference are not enough to deal with challenges the denomination faces.

• Final report: UMC path unsustainable

New UMW web site

The new web site design for the United Methodist Women is much nore attractive than prior ones. It's also organized well.

One issue appears to be slow loading of images, especially on the mhome page. Visitors might think that the image link was "bad" and get a negative impression. But the overall design, organization, and information is excellent.

• New UMW site

Quote of note

Always keep your words soft and sweet ...

just in case you have to eat them.

Quote of note

"The bad news is time flies. The good news is you're the pilot."

- Michael Althsuler

Quote of note

"The highest reward for a person’s work is not what they get for it, but what they become because of it."

-- John Ruskin

Quote of note

“To be a superpower is to be the champion of peace, freedom, and democracy, of human rights, environmental quality, and the alleviation of suffering.”
-- President Jimmy Carter, PBS Newshour Interview, 19 Novemeber 1996.

Open thoughts

An upcoming sermon is about Christians acting with openness. Recent sermons have dealt with boldness and generosity. Below are a few "open thoughts" about openness.

Are you:

• Boldly open to new ideas?
• Open to the Holy Spirit?
• Open to constructive comments?
• Open to people not like you?
• Boldly open to a different style of worship?
• Open in a way that lets others "in" to know you better?
• Open to forgiving others?
• Open to not getting your way?
• Open to focusing on helping others -- open to generously giving of your time, talent, and money when you have more than they do?
• Open to letting others help you in your time of need?
• Open to changing your mind?
• Open to being a true servant leader?
• Open to discovering new talents? (You have to try something new to discover a new talent).
• Open to asking forgiveness when it's appropriate?

We may think we are "open" in many of the above ways, but would our friends, coworkers, and strangers agree?

Shopping for a church

In "Church Shopping: Why Do We Do It?", blogger Jamie Lath lists a few reasons:

• Fewer people are tied to a denomination.
• More people are looking for a sense of community -- a place to feel at home.
• There are more church choices today.
• We fail to first go to God for direction.

A church friend told a business acquaintance and I that he and his wife were changing to a different church. The other guy said, "Wow! What did they do to make you change churches?" He was thunderstruck at the action. That was the way it used to be. Today, if we get upset at someone in a church, don't think a preacher's sermons will be YouTube hits, or decide that we want to be on a better church sports team, zoom -- off we go to a different church to fill our "needs".

We don't want to help establish or even improve a children's ministry at a church, we want it all provided already. We want a concert every Sunday -- with music that fills our exact preferences. We want to be handed a multimedia extravaganza week-after-week. We want to be fed a perfect sermon every Sunday, but we hesitate to spend any time to "feed ourselves" though personal and group Bible study. We don't care as much about a church's theology; it's more important that we"feel good" about being there.

Jamie's last point may be the most important. It seems that many shop for churches because they are not looking upward (going to God about their choice) or looking inward (examining our motives) or looking outward (how their spiritual life might improve by focusing on and helping others) but rather about their personal wants without regard to any of that.

Our modern society has changed quite a lot in the last 50 years. Is it much of a stretch to think that these changes have had an impact on church selection and even church attendance?

• Families live further apart thanks to ease of transportation. Some rarely see each other. Some rarely talk to each other.
• Mobility of the workforce means more changes of location due to job changes.
• Two-parent families are declining.
• More kids are left on their own at a much younger age due to working parents.
• We may not even know the people who live next door.
• Computers, which were supposed to give us more free time, have really just added stress -- we can get more work done in the same period. We work faster and as hard or harder. Computers have added stress to the workplace.
• We multitask more and think we are being more efficient. Yet studies show that multitasking actually reduces efficiency.
• The explosion of use of the Internet has resulted in a lot more communication, but in a much less personal fashion and with a drastic increase in trivial communication.
• We tend to fill our days, adding stress upon stress. Many people feel bad if they are not always busy.

Easier, faster transportation has "freed" us to travel wider in attending a church. We can no longer assume that someone will attend the nearest church of "their" denomination. Parents can no longer assume that their children will be the same denomination or even religion as they are.

Another issue is denominational identity. With the glut of types of churches, it's sometimes hard to see how they differ.

There is also significantly less relating to people face-to-face today (... no, Skype or Facetime don't really count as "in person" communication). An online "friend" may be someone we have never met, don't really know, and have no deep personal relationship with. We don't even know for sure the gender or age of most people we "meet" online (as some teenagers find out the hard way). Perhaps this lack of personal contact is part of what leads some people to prioritize community in selecting a church.

Our hectic lives remind me of a fire ant mound that someone has just stepped on -- swarming all over the place in a seeming random pattern. So we get home and collapse -- grab a meal and become a couch potato to try, often in vain, to relieve the day's stress. Many may lack the energy to delve into Bible study or church work of any sort.

We work hard to feed ourselves food, but we fail to put as much effort into feeding our souls. Jamie Lath suggests that we need to become less hedonistic in selecting and supporting a church. The result could be great soul food. That's food for thought!

Quote of note

"The emptiest lives are those stuffed with motion from morning to night,"

-- pastor David Henderson