Denny Way Rev

2011-02-05T21:48:00.000-08:00

Soaking in Seattle

2009-01-08T18:31:00.000-08:00

Somehow, in one quick dash up Columbia Street to Sixth Avenue this afternoon I managed to get completely drenched. I mean drenched like I'd showered with my clothes on. Pants wet. Hair wet. Wool coat wet like a sponge.

Where to plant a new church?

2009-01-06T15:26:00.000-08:00

Each United Methodist pastor works in the local church and almost always functions at a denominational level as well. My denominational role is to chair the Board of Congregational Development of our Pacific Northwest Annual Conference. We have several million dollars earmarked for the purpose of starting new churches, but we've had serious obstacles over the last many years. In fact, our last several church starts have ended in failure, costing thousands of dollars, but not leading to new congregations.

So over the last few years I've led the board in a reassessment of our strategies and in hiring new staff to do the groundwork. These last few days our board met, and sad to say, we spent an entire day talking about new locations, but without coming up with a firm commitment on any of them. Vancouver? Lake Tapps? Post Falls? Staff is heading back now to continue the research and make a new proposal, but what a difficult exercise we found ourselves in.

Anyway, please pray for us that we'll get the research right and plant our next churches where they need to be.

2008 is one for the record books

2009-01-03T21:35:00.001-08:00

If you haven't seen this video, you'll enjoy it. A special thanks to Rev. Robert Taylor for sharing.

Thanks to King County my muffin has 660 calories

2009-01-03T09:35:00.000-08:00

If it weren't for King County I would be living in blissful ignorance of the fatty muffin I've been eating each morning for the last two years. My morning goes like this: I wake up, I stumble down the stairs while pulling my clothes on, I look in the mirror and go "ugh," I go to the garage, I start the car, I drive to Tully's, I mumble the words, "Almond Poppy Seed Muffin," I groggily consume each muffiny bite, I sip coffee, I go home, I shower, I am Sandy again for another day.

Enter King County.

So today I do all the above the very same way, except this time I say, "Where's that nutritional information you guys are supposed to provide starting yesterday by King County ordinance?" The skinny, tattooed, man/boy goth barista who obviuosly needs no calorie information sorts behind the counter for the white notebook. I open right to the page: Almond Poppyseed Muffin: 660 calories.

King County, Mean County. My precious Poppyseed muffin. My morning love. My passion. My rock. My daybreak. Even a donut, even an apple fritter has fewer calories than thee.

"You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free." So I am now free from my favorite muffin. I see it drifting away now, like in a weightless environment. The tiny seeds, the almonds, the delectable bready morsels are floating in the air just out of my reach. Gone.

O ye politicians, ye takers of muffin, ye doers of good. See what ye hath wrought.

Darn rockets and bombs

2009-01-02T18:06:00.000-08:00

I'm so sad to see a resurgence in violence in Israel/Palestine. Last January I spent 2 weeks touring Israel and the West Bank with a group of Seattle church leaders. We talked to many people and each held out hope that the current cease fire would somehow turn into a longer peace.

No such luck. The blockade on Gaza continued, the rockets kept falling, and now the bombs are dropping. Word is that ground troops, massing at the border, will soon invade. It's a sad scene, partly because of these often-overlooked facts:

Population of Gaza is 1.5 million in an area of 360 square kilometers. That makes a density of 4167 people per square kilometer - the highest density in the world.

75% of Gazans are refugees.

45% of Gazans are under 14 years of age.

80% of Gazan households live below the poverty line, subsisting on less than $3 per person a day.

80% of all Gazan families would literally starve without food aid from international agencies.

No one really disputes the depravity of the Hamas rocket attacks on Israel. My problem is the Israeli bombing attacks on Gazans, which are far more deadly, given the population density of Gaza, and far more likely to strike innocent civilians. A case in point is the 400 Palestinians so far killed vs. the 4 Israeli deaths by rocket fire. This is more of a shooting gallery than it is a war.

So, I'm joining tomorrow's march downtown and am planning a statement at the rally. I'll condemn both Palestinian rocket firers and Israeli bombers, Palestinians who make informal terror and Israelis who make formal war/terror. It's all terror and it all should be stopped. These groups will hate each other for years, but both are proving the idiocy of violence as a way to resolve conflict.

Best Man, Worst Man

2009-01-01T10:31:00.000-08:00

Weddings are weddings. Baptisms are baptisms. Ne'er the twain should meet.

New Year's Prayer

2009-01-01T08:56:00.000-08:00

Gail and I welcomed the New Year very quietly last night - with a few recorded episodes of 30 Rock. I'm lovin' that show. Tina Fey's great, but Alec Baldwin steals every scene he's in. What a big, puffy, expressive, funny, egomaniacal hunk-a-chunk.

It could be the effects of the last Christmas chocolate, but this morning I'm mellow, thinking about a year gone by and another year yet to unfurl. Out of that mellowness comes my prayer for this new year:

Dear God, thank you for the joys and even the pains of last year. In every event - happy or sad - you walked with me. In this New Year hold my hand and walk with me again through each fresh joy, each hope, each project, each friendship. And let me and those whom I love accept all that awaits us with trust in your care. Thank you for your love that has brought me this far, and thank you for your love that holds me in this new day. I am yours, put me to your work. Amen.

Saddest photo in the blogosphere

2008-12-30T18:08:00.000-08:00

This picture makes me sad - it shows everything that's wrong with religion. It's a young Jewish man with his prayer shawl, saying his prayer in front of a tank that is likely soon to shoot at other people with their own prayer clothes on who in turn are in front of their weapons getting ready to shoot at other people in their prayer shawls . . . . .

It makes it especially hard to see having been in Israel less than a year ago. I led a delegation there with 17 church leaders from the Seattle area and we came to know many Palestinians and Jews. The differences are drawn so sharply, but they're both beautiful peoples. There is so much hatred, though, and so much sadness.

So I pray for the praying man who will shoot at the praying man who will shoot back at the praying man . . . .

Saying good-bye to two beautiful people

2008-12-30T17:16:00.001-08:00

Today was a sad moment at the church offices. Due to budget cuts we had to say goodbye to Jean Ferguson and Edwin Beatty.

Jean has been with the church for several (I think, six) years. She's known sometimes as our "office grandma," "grandma Jean," or by many others simply as the kind voice on the phone. As well as her duties with the bulletin, Jean has shepherded the Shared Breakfast crew. At the last Shared Breakfast, Jean and her gang served nearly 260 people, as well as giving away coats, hats, gloves, socks, you get the message. Jean will really be missed around the church. We love her and are sad to see her go.

Edwin is much newer with the church, but what a help he's been these last several months. Edwin was first with ideas when I was looking for a Spanish restaurant to cater our Camino dinner in September. We'll miss his wit, his grace, and his hard work.

Budget cuts will also lead to three other departures - Dan and Crystal in 2010. But sometimes fiscal sanity comes at the price of emotional insanity. At the end of it will be a balanced budget - for the first time in 10 years - and we'll all be a little sadder and wiser, too.

Oh geez, St. Pat's (but it could've been us)

2008-12-29T23:17:00.000-08:00

Time for St. Patrick's church to hire a P.R. man (or to reread the Sermon on the Mount every Sunday to the congregation). And to think this is a liberal congregation - as liberal as any Catholic church in Seattle. But, it could've been us. When will we ever learn?

I guess our typical rationale is . . . "I was late for Mass." Isn't it the same as the priest and the Levite in the Good Samaritan story? Ugh.

The strange allure of Facebook

2008-12-29T22:28:00.000-08:00

I think it was Elizabeth Ingram-Schindler who turned me on to Facebook. She asked if I was "on Facebook," which I sorta was (meaning I'd responded to someone's invitation and had uploaded a profile). I checked into it again and this time stuck my toe in.

My first search was for friends from my pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. Sure enough, there was Stephan from South Africa. Then there was his friend Trevor. Soon I was connected to my Camino friends Dani (Berlin) and Trevor R. (Ohio/Connecticut). After that, I was being contacted by friends from Wenatchee, friends from high school, fellow United Methodist clergy, church members. And on and on.

Then I started getting into seeing what people were posting. Conner is tired. Lorie slept in. David preached a good sermon. Trevor went four-wheeling. All silly, all mundane, all superficial.

Soon I was posting my own silly, mundane, superficial stuff. So, world, I'm proud of my turkey burgers. Or happy about the snow.

Facebook doesn't give much depth to communication. You'll never know the real person by reading Facebook. But boy does it give width to communication. I know a tiny bit about way more of my friends now. A mile wide and an inch deep, I guess. But it all makes for fun, passes the time, and keeps me out of trouble.

And now people know I'm a fan of John Wesley and Jon Stewart, of Alfred North Whitehead and Stephen Colbert. Not deep knowledge of me, not revealing, but a tiny glimpse to tickle someone's interest and maybe share a laugh.

Check out my Camino video

2008-12-29T00:42:00.000-08:00

Here's the Camino video that's now risen to the top of the YouTube search list (for "Camino de Santiago 2008" that is).

Lots of people ask about the music. Watch the video to the very end and you'll see the artists' names. Enjoy!

Why I no longer buy the Seattle Times

2008-12-28T23:23:00.000-08:00

OK, I'd been leery of the Times for many years, but the first big turn-off came in 2007 when I visited the Times' editorial board to talk up the Mental Health/Substance Abuse Sales Tax. The tax - at a cost of less than $100 per household per year - would provide $48 million/year to fight the causes of homelessness in our county. Well, the Times editorial board asked all the wrong questions, then wrote a very pointed editorial against the tax. This even though there was no organized opposition to the effort. Well, the tax passed overwhelmingly in spite of the Times' opposition.

Then there were Lance Dickey's anti-tent city editorials.

But the final straw was the editorial board's endorsement of Dino Rossi for governor. Gregoire won 64 to 36%. The Times was obviously way out of step with its context - King County.

And here's the latest: the Times' campaign for salt on Seattle streets. As usual, Slog was the most eloquent: Seattle Times 1, Truth 0 and Times to Puget Sound: Drop Dead. Sand works fine. It just has to be applied after a street is plowed. Our problem is lack of plowing and sanding. Let's not punish Puget Sound for our lack of snow plows.

Just seems odd to me that such a progressive city would have such a backward major daily. Maybe I'm not the only one who's tired of the Times' backward attitudes - the paper's cutting back and laying off staff. Feels to me like the price of ideology over truth in journalism.

So yeah, you won't see me with a copy of the Times by my morning muffin and decaf. I'm readin' the P-I.