The New Monastics

Check out this piece from "Speaking of Faith" - a program on National Public Radio:

The New Monastics

Wes

Spider-man and Money

I wanted to follow up on the previous article about Spider-Man. Some of you may have heard that Spider-Man 3's box office draw was incredible for the first week ... somewhere beyond $300 million for one weekend. That breaks down to approximately $35,000 per theatre.

Wow!

It says a great deal about our culture these days when one weekend (four days at most) at the movies generates more money than most people will see for an entire year as a paycheck.

Here's a question: how can churches compete with the entertainment industry? Should churches try to compete?

What do you think?

Did you see Spider-Man 3 ... why was it better than being at church? What can church offer that movies cannot?

Carnations as a Sign of our Care

This Sunday is Mother's Day, and unless you come from some remote, as yet unknown and mysterious planet, you probably have one of those.

All youth are invited to help recognize the great gift Mother's are this Sunday by handing out carnations in worship. We do this as a sign of the many ways we are loved through them ... as we also heard from Jonathan in Presbynotes.

However, since it is Mother's Day, we will not be having any youth group activities this Sunday.

Next Sunday, however, there will be a game night for the jr. high youth followed by "Faith and Life" for the sr. high youth.

"Faith and Life" this month will be presented by Christine Coy as she will give space and time to the topic of Campus Life. Come hear from one who has recently experienced college and who can give fresh insight into how Christianity may affect the year's ahead of you.

Posture of Celebration

Over the past three weeks, some very kind, playful and (shall we say) mysterious visitors have dropped into my office on Sunday evenings - leaving behind remnants of their stay: post-it notes and such. They go by the name Evil Presby Trio ... actually that is their email address ... but I have some serious doubts that they are actually "evil."

In fact, every indication I've seen points to the contrary. These mysterious guests invariably leave behind joyful doodles and comments. But, most of all, I enjoy what they do with Art-dude.

Art-dude is an eight-inch miniken used by artists to help them create drawings, paintings, etc. Art-dude looks something like this:

As you can well imagine, Art-dude takes on almost any expression, but the Evil Presby Trio has decidely shaped him into postures of play and celebration - tell-tale evidence of their actual nature. I am thankful Art-dude has received such warm attention recently - more than I've given him in three years. Through Evil Presby Trio's care and time, Art-dude almost appears like this:
... except Art-dude is still made of wood, and is not multi-hued. That would be cool, though!

One of the great blessings that comes from being around young people is their tremendous desire to celebrate, play and be glad. It is a great reminder to all of us. And, I continue to be thankful for the way our youth bring out life's joy in every circumstance, situation and Art-dude.

Wes

p.s. - the name "Art-dude" was selected after deciding that "Woody" would violate some serious copyright laws and likely land me on the unfortunate end of a lawsuit between myself and Disney's Pixar.