Life in the Big Potato

This morning I read a post at Bridge Bloggin' just as I was thinking over what the vision for our church should be. "Vision" is one of those words that everybody uses but almost never defines. By "vision" I simply mean how we define, pursue and present our mission. So reading the post got me to thinking about appropriate church slogans. You know, church slogans--those short pithy statements that come after the name of the church to remind everyone what is most important to you. Most churches have them. "Real, Relevant, Relational" is popular. "First Church, First Love" is another I've heard. Some churches borrow from Cheers "The place where everybody knows your name." Anyway, most church slogans are positive, catchy and geared toward making the church sound like a place where happy people come to be happy together. What if your church had a slogan like, "1st Ave Church: A great place to suffer!" Or how abou...

Yesterday I went to a park to eat my lunch. It was about 2 o'clock on a Wednesday. I expected to see a few mothers with their kids taking an afternoon in the park. Instead I noticed that the parking lot was quite full. The disc golf course was crawling with people (mostly younger males). Three guys walked up and started playing hacky sack. You know, the game where you kick around a bean bag. When I finished eating I joined their circle and demonstrated that I still had what it takes to be awesome at an inconsequential sport (that's my specialty). As we played I found out these guys worked as cooks at a local restaurant. They are young, probably early 20's, and have dreams of building good lives for themselves. I asked them if they'd rather make more money or work with people they like. They both said that making more money wouldn't help them if they hated their job. I told them I was a pastor, which didn't seem to impress them so much as confuse them....