12.19.04

last thoughts before a bad christian x-mas break

Posted in faith at 3:29 pm by

Okay, friends. The holidays are upon us. As such I will be leaving to visit with my newly married brother and sister-in-law in Spencer, Iowa. From there, we (my parents and wife) will be driving back to Des Moines where we will catch a plane to Tampa, Florida. (My parent’s will go home because Dad has to preach.) We’ll be spending a few days in sunny (and hopefully warm) Florida to visit my wife’s paternal extended family–something we usually do over Christmas.

That said, I’ll be away from the blog for a while. There’s a slight possibility that I’ll be able to give you a trip report and respond to some comments, but I’m not sure about that. I just like to keep you all informed so that no one thinks that I’m dead–because, after all, if I die, who’ll host blogvention?

Here are my last thoughts on the Church / Bar conversation. First, as someone pointed out in the comments section of Streak’s blog, there’s a difference between a bar and a pub. I think that perhaps the feeling of community that I really desire can be best understood as coming from a pub rather than a bar. The difference, as I understand it, is that a bar is an establishment whose primary buisness exploits are as a drinking establishment. A pub has a broader focus. The term ‘pub’ comes as a shortened version of the term ‘public house.’ Basically, a place where a community could come at day’s end and have whatever was for dinner at the public house and have a pint or two to close the day.

I do admit that a bar does have some negative connotations that come along with it. The over-focus on alcohol seems a barrier for some in considering it an acceptable alternative for a church-like community. I think that that point is causing some pause. I think, though, the difference between a pub and a bar accentuates the point that I’m trying to make. There ARE places of buisness whose focus is on community such that they actually out perform places like the church. Perhaps because they’re so accepting. (How many pubs do you think serve ONLY the highbrow of society–le creme de le creme, so to speak?)

Maybe some of the magical experience that one can garner sitting around a table sipping an ale, soda, or a coffee, happens because often those folks you meet there are unencumbered by a set of social rules to which they are expected to adhere. Maybe the magic comes because all sizes and shapes are welcome at the table in these places. Maybe, the magic exists because God’s tired of all the rules and social expectations that churches have come to implicitly follow…and when God wants to bless a conversation she knows better than to try to do so in a church, where there’ll be so much pressure to conform that conversation into a pre-set ritual of religiosity.

Maybe the magic of coffee-shops and public houses arises more out of the fact that God wants us to know that she’s everywhere. That when she tore the curtain in the temple when her son died, that really meant she was no longer confined to that holy of holies. That holiness is everywhere…we’ve just got to find it, find it and then love it, and love it like it’s going out of style.

Maybe that magic is at the pub because that’s where we’re most honest. Maybe.

Happy holidays, enjoy a holiday ale, fine coffee beverage, or anything else of the like for me…and for heaven’s sake, make a little magic: find a little holiness this holiday season.

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last thoughts before a bad christian x-mas break

Posted in faith at 3:29 pm by

Okay, friends. The holidays are upon us. As such I will be leaving to visit with my newly married brother and sister-in-law in Spencer, Iowa. From there, we (my parents and wife) will be driving back to Des Moines where we will catch a plane to Tampa, Florida. (My parent’s will go home because Dad has to preach.) We’ll be spending a few days in sunny (and hopefully warm) Florida to visit my wife’s paternal extended family–something we usually do over Christmas.

That said, I’ll be away from the blog for a while. There’s a slight possibility that I’ll be able to give you a trip report and respond to some comments, but I’m not sure about that. I just like to keep you all informed so that no one thinks that I’m dead–because, after all, if I die, who’ll host blogvention?

Here are my last thoughts on the Church / Bar conversation. First, as someone pointed out in the comments section of Streak’s blog, there’s a difference between a bar and a pub. I think that perhaps the feeling of community that I really desire can be best understood as coming from a pub rather than a bar. The difference, as I understand it, is that a bar is an establishment whose primary buisness exploits are as a drinking establishment. A pub has a broader focus. The term ‘pub’ comes as a shortened version of the term ‘public house.’ Basically, a place where a community could come at day’s end and have whatever was for dinner at the public house and have a pint or two to close the day.

I do admit that a bar does have some negative connotations that come along with it. The over-focus on alcohol seems a barrier for some in considering it an acceptable alternative for a church-like community. I think that that point is causing some pause. I think, though, the difference between a pub and a bar accentuates the point that I’m trying to make. There ARE places of buisness whose focus is on community such that they actually out perform places like the church. Perhaps because they’re so accepting. (How many pubs do you think serve ONLY the highbrow of society–le creme de le creme, so to speak?)

Maybe some of the magical experience that one can garner sitting around a table sipping an ale, soda, or a coffee, happens because often those folks you meet there are unencumbered by a set of social rules to which they are expected to adhere. Maybe the magic comes because all sizes and shapes are welcome at the table in these places. Maybe, the magic exists because God’s tired of all the rules and social expectations that churches have come to implicitly follow…and when God wants to bless a conversation she knows better than to try to do so in a church, where there’ll be so much pressure to conform that conversation into a pre-set ritual of religiosity.

Maybe the magic of coffee-shops and public houses arises more out of the fact that God wants us to know that she’s everywhere. That when she tore the curtain in the temple when her son died, that really meant she was no longer confined to that holy of holies. That holiness is everywhere…we’ve just got to find it, find it and then love it, and love it like it’s going out of style.

Maybe that magic is at the pub because that’s where we’re most honest. Maybe.

Happy holidays, enjoy a holiday ale, fine coffee beverage, or anything else of the like for me…and for heaven’s sake, make a little magic: find a little holiness this holiday season.

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