Random Saturday thoughts
On laundry:
You know you live in a house with four females when there is at least one and often two laundry loads of just pink clothes every week. And woe to any white raiment that should accidentally fall into their company in the washer.
- On commas:
- My writing style is highly parenthetical. I use commas, dashes, parentheses, brackets and semicolons - a lot (often in the same sentence; it's weird but my mind actually thinks that way while I am writing). I am trying to wean myself off of most literary convolutions in an attempt at gaining clarity and discipline. To that end while I like the following quote I personally would have removed the comma. :o)
The older I grow, the less important the comma becomes. Let the reader catch his own breath.
Elizabeth Clarkson Zwart
Churches can jump the shark, too. What makes us think that a church can last for 50 years? 100 years? 200? Sure, some do. But is that normal? In a society where something as simple as a TV show can't last for more than 5-7 years (at most) without sucking what makes us think we can create an institution that will last without tuning and even complete revamping periodically? Demographics shift. Here in the Midwest even towns die, let alone churches. While the decline of self-identifying Christians is worrisome it doesn't mean that every church closing its doors is a problem.
[I need to flesh this one out some more but it's been on my "to post" list for a while so I am throwing it out for conversation's sake. Have at it.]
2 comments:
I'm pretty sure I over-punctuate my sentences also. I admire people who can express a lot in as few words as possible.
And for me, I think ecclesiology has become the Next Big Thing I'd like to "figure out", if such a thing can be done. Actually, I'm not sure it can be figured out, and I feel like institutions have enough man-made momentum that no matter what a few malcontents say or do, things will probably continue pretty much the way they always have.
But I do think a lot of people today are questioning this stuff like we are, and not just to be contrarians, or difficult, or trendy -- but to actually know the Lord's heart in the matter, if it can be known. And if what we learn requires radical rethinking or difficult change, we need to be prepared to follow that.
CH,
I am actually being pretty careful about what I am putting in my head around ecclesiology (and theology in general) for a very simple reason - I think it can actually kill the thing which it seeks to understand. I am a person who, when something interests me, likes to dive in and learn everything I can about it. In some cases that increases my enjoyment, in others it can kill it. I think when it comes to knowing God getting too technical about it all may actually kill it.
I mean, for all the terms (see my buzzword bingo), do they bring anything other than more terms, more debate, more schism? It seems to me the answer is, "No". At one point I was thinking of returning to school to pursue a degree in theology. I've pretty much talked myself out of it, because I like being back in a relationship with God, and I don't want to abstract Him all away again.
Mi dos pesos.
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