My job is so demanding I can't do any work

I've been thinking the goal is to live an integrated life.  Work, faith, family, self, religion all a part of one thing.

I thought I was doing it wrong or I wasn't very good at it because it didn't seem to be working at all.

I then I discovered that it's not necessarily nirvana: this integrated all parts working together thing.

A friend who discovers things at a young age explained to me that things started clicking for him when he consciously segmented his work from his ministry which I think he was referring to as his vocation.

Then I came across a piece in a transcript for an On Being radio show about life in Detroit 

A job is similar to slavery in that one is forced to perform actions in return for some sort of compensation for one's labor. Therefore the rewards are extrinsic, and without such extrinsic rewards people cannot be forced into a job they dislike. To tolerate or compensate for these job conditions often times people will engage in excessive consumerism or self-medicate to counteract the boredom that comes from a job or to make themselves feel better.

Work, on the other hand, is defined as activities that one enjoys. To be compensated with money is not important because of the pleasures and satisfaction of work. Therefore the rewards are more intrinsic.

as outlined by Matthew Fox (The Re-Invention of Work)

This seems right for me now.  I have to start being realistic about what my job requires and do it with all the passion and intensity I can bring to bear.  Numbers, ego, competition, accomplishment, pleasing others, service all will be alive and well here.  I'll do my job with conviction that is making a difference in the organization and the world.

But there will need to be time for work to.  This is the integrated place. Family, friends, foes, different ideas, the joy of being, failure,  will be seen or sought or brought.

It as in most things is probably best to move from the integrated life to the segmented work life and after a while here, it'll be time to go back to the integrated thing again.

2 Things Everyone You Serve in Ministry Will Want in 2012

They manifest themselves in different ways, but two things that everyone seems to want is to be heard and to be right.

It isn't enough to try something in ministry.

Having an idea and having it heard is important.

How does it fit into the overall mission and ministry of the church?  Not as critical.

Of course it's sometimes hard to figure out just what the mission and ministry of the church is.

We sometimes confuse the mission and ministry of the church with right theology or with minimizing risk.

The most important thing might be to make sure the nativity scene is historically accurate or that the right forms are filled out for the trip to the soup kitchen.

Which leads to a third thing people will want in 2012.


To get their way.

The critical job for us will be to figure out if what we are doing is just trying to get our way or fulfilling the mission and ministry of the church.

A good start would be to hear others, and let them know we hear.

We have the rest of the year to figure out what's right and who will get their way.

When is where you put the creche the point?

An excerpt from the movie script of Charlie Wilson's War between a US Senator and a powerful constituent details a scene in which the ACLU's lawsuit to have a nativity scene removed from the lawn of a fire station.  It gives some interesting insight into our modern concept of incarnation.

Larry: Every single year since the world was young, the firehouse in the Nacogdoches

Township has displayed a creche.

Now, the ACLU has filed suit against the township for displaying a religious symbol on public property.

It's Christmas time.

It's a creche.

I could understand if we were in gosh-darn Scarsdale, but this is east Texas, and I want to know who we're offending.

Except two lawyers from the ACLU.

Charlie: That is a terribly interesting and complicated question.

Let me make this suggestion, though.

There's a church about a block and a half from that firehouse, First Baptist Church of Nacogdoches.

They've got a beautiful rolling lawn out there in front.

Larry: No, no. This is a Christian country, Charlie, founded on Christian values.

Sure.  We welcome other faiths to worship as they wish, but when you can't put a nativity scene in front of a firehouse at Christmas time in Nacogdoches Township, something's gone terribly wrong.

  

Charlie: Well, that's not really true, Larry.

You could move that creche over to that church and everything's just fine.

Larry: That's not the point!

Every since the magi came looking for Christ in the palace of Herod, we have been expecting God's presence to be proclaimed in the places of power.

We often still insist that his manifest existence is displayed in court houses, on the public square, at the check out counter, and even on the fire house lawn.

But incarnation is about how we bear God's existence and presence for others.

And not about what icon inhabits the public square.

On the eve of God's coming, we anticipate all the ways and places God's presence will find us in spite of our desire to control where we and others see him.

Or, what do you think is the point?

Kantians, modern consequentialists, and contractualists- living in the tension of right and wrong

Do you believe you should act according to categorical moral principles that you would desire everyone to follow?

If so, you might be a Kantian.

Do you believe that you should act based on what is likely to happen as being a good outcome or a bad outcome?

You might be a modern consequentialist.

Or do you put more stock in doing things guided by subjective principles of what "we owe each other"?

You could be described as a contractualist.

In her New Yorker Magazine article about philosopher Derek Parfit, Larissa MacFarquhar, using the following scenario to illustrate the difference in ideas of right and wrong:

A murderer asks you where your friend is, so he can kill her.

The Kantian would tell the murderer where the friend is.  The consequentialist would not tell because it would mean the possible death of a friend.  The contractualist would base his subjective and practical decision based on what he owes his friend vs. what is owed to society on being truthful or deceptive in this instance: lying or betraying a friend.

Parfit was looking for a way to satisfy all three positions with a convergent principle:

An act is wrong just when such acts are disallowed by some principle that is optimific [leading to best results], uniquely universally willable, and not reasonably rejectable.

It may the mother of all answers to moral dilemmas but not too helpful in the world of ministry.

The objective in bring people together around ideas probably shouldn't be an answer that satisfies everyone (let's face it, a Sunday school answer).

The objective should be for the consequentialist to understand why a Kantians is so Kantian and what experiences the contractualists had to make her so very...consequentialist.

Maybe then we can start to understand why we do what we do and have such strong feelings about what's right and what's wrong.

How Often Should Community Outreach Announcements Include a Warning?

There are no doubt things going on in the church that might not be ideal for children of certain ages.  We should protect our youngsters, for example, from committee meetings that don't follow an agenda or that don't include follow up with action items after the meeting.

It seems that most warnings, though, should only be included for inside communication with the church family.

I say that because I just received an invitation to an event at a church in town that includes the warning that the event deals with mature subject matter and strongly recommends children under 9 shouldn't attend.

That seems like a strange place to start a relationship.  "Let the little children come to me... unless they are younger than nine and might hear about people they loved are in hell because they made poor choices."

It doesn't seem to ring true.

There are some trainings and some conversations in our churches that children aren't ready for yet and we all understand that.

But it just seems like when we are sending a message to people that we don't know, we should start with something everyone should hear.

God loves you.

Maybe in fact that is a good place to start and to stay.

How making Noah's Ark more plausible doesn't grow your faith

I heard that a group or two is building a full size ark similar to Noah's.

Based on the dimensions from scripture.

It's massive- 500 feet long complete with cages.

It is said to give an idea of how big the original was.

So that you can see: that yes it's possible.  Yes it was big enough and could really hold all those animals and their food.

The builder said that he hoped by doing this he would make the story of Noah's Ark more plausible.

No thanks.

I don't want to have to know that the things my faith tells me are certain.

I don't think a plausible faith is something I'm ready to believe in just yet.

How being a slacker at home can make you a control freak at work

My wife is the engine that drives our family and our household economy.

She gets things done (as well as works a full time job) as far as house chores, a lot of the yard work, and she is the emotional glue that holds our family dynamic together.  I cook the occasional meal, but generate more work than I produce in the order of a messed up kitchen.  I mow the grass, but she has recently expressed interest in taking over that chore.

I feel bad about abdicating most home responsibilities to her.  (But let's face it, not TOO bad.)

She will occasionally ask me to do some things which I most always try to do and sometimes in a timely manner, but often neglect.

So.  I feel really guilty about asking her to help me do anything or ask for a favor in the household economy.  If I ask her to go to the store to get stamps to mail the bills that I'm on the verge of paying too late, I feel bad.

A colleague in ministry told me the other day he felt like I was being a control person about something.

It shocked me.  I have always prided myself in being a decentralized open source collaborator.

I realized perhaps that I have let my guilt of being a slacker at home makes me unwilling to ask others to do things in ministry (aka volunteer to offer presence and service).

I'm not sure exactly what to do about this, but I think I better go look at my to do list and quit feeling guilty about being a slacker at home.

Or quit being a slacker at home.

Or leave home at home.

Or... live my life authentically.

At home.  At work. And in ministry.