Church budget and faith (3) Jan 20, 2008
It's Sunday, so I'll write about churchy things.  Today, my pastor said an interesting thing about the church budget.  He said church budget planning needs to include an act of faith.  In other words, you don't just say, "Well, we have X amount of money, so we can do the following Y things."  Instead, budget planners should have faith that God will provide more than they can plan for. 

It's an interesting idea, and I have mixed feelings about it.  On the one hand, I agree that faith should be exercised in all areas of life.  If you're gonna take Christianity seriously, you shouldn't do it selectively.  This applies to marriage, friendships, work, and yes, money. 

However, on the other hand, I feel like the church should use our (and my) money wisely.  They should plan according to what they have, and make it work well.  Instead of overbudgeting and then doing a series of sermons about money and tithing, they should budget like a company or a family and do it conservatively.  When a family decides on a budget, they don't plan a few extra vacations and have faith that God will provide the means.  I realize this is different than what a church does, but the idea is similar. #religion
Bible study schedule Dec 10, 2007
It's annoying when the leader of a Bible study rejects questions and tangent discussions "because we don't have time for that".  Why the heck not?  Isn't the purpose of a Bible study to learn more about the Bible and Christianity?  Who cares if we deviate from the schedule?  Who cares if we learn something outside of your lesson plan? 

Granted, this type of thing happens mostly with certain types of Bible study leaders ("Must cover a certain amount of material in a certain amount of time!") when certain types of people are in attendance (people who are incapable of staying on any one topic for any amount of time).  Surprisingly, I'm not the type of leader who feels the need to stick to a schedule.  I'm ok with going on a tangent because I find that people are more interested and involved in topics that come straight from their brains, instead of topics that come from me.  And as a leader, I understand that certain people can't stay focused on one thing for any amount of time, and it'll hurt the rest of the Bible study group if we only talk about one person's ideas.  However, I don't feel that a proper response to a legitimately curious person's question is, "We don't have time to talk about that now.  If you'd like, we can talk about that another night."  Not only is it a cop-out, it's a cheap cop-out because you know that person (a) won't be there another night and/or (b) will forget to bring the topic up again. #religion
Blaming God Sep 24, 2007
I think it's perfectly fine to blame God for the bad things, as long as he also gets credit for the good things.  If I blame him for getting a flat tire while waiting in traffic after sleeping past my alarm, I should also thank him for giving me a job that lets me afford a car and a roof over my head, and for getting me up and to work every other day.  If I blame God for the death of a friend or family member, I should also thank him for giving them life in the first place, and for giving me continued life despite the fact that death is inevitable. 

I mentioned this topic a while ago, but in reference to blaming George W. Bush for the increasing (and then decreasing) gas prices.  No, I'm not equating GWB to God.  But the situation is essentially the same.  If we blame someone or something for a certain specific negative action, shouldn't we also thank that same person/entity for when the situation goes away or gets better? #religion
Pastor Jun 21, 2007
I just found out last night that my church has no qualification for calling someone "pastor".  This is a bit unsettling.  I was under the impression a pastor is someone who's been to divinity/theology school and has gone through some sort of certification process, the end result of which is the award of the title "pastor".  This is not the case at all.  Apparently, this title is used differently in different churches, and in our specific church, it's used to describe someone who's a leader of a specific ministry/group.  There's a senior pastor, an associate pastor, a youth pastor, a worship pastor, and a few others.  Most of these people and titles don't bother me.  But there's one specific pastor who I don't feel is qualified to be called pastor.  I don't know the guy too well, but I know he's around my age and has a degree in music.  That's about as far as our differences go.  And since I don't see myself as someone who should be called pastor, I don't feel this guy should be called pastor either.  I think the title of pastor carries with it a sense of spiritual leadership and religious know-how.  People go to pastors for help with problems, spiritual guidance, Bible questions, and things like that.  If you're just some dude who's in charge of a group, I think you should be called "the guy in charge of the group" and not "pastor". #religion
God is unfair May 11, 2007
I heard in a Bible study a few weeks ago that God is radically unfair.  This sounded different from normal, and here's the explanation. 
  1. Let's assume God said something like this:  "If you do X, your punishment will be Y."
  2. You do X.
  3. You don't get punished with Y.
  4. Conclusion:  God is unfair.
If X = sin and Y = separation from God, God is unfair if he doesn't follow through with the original promise.  In that case, I'm glad he's unfair. #religion
Scientific fact (2) Apr 24, 2007
Scott Adams wrote an interesting thing about scientific fact a few weeks ago.  One of his points was that scientific facts sometimes change based on how much "science" we know. 
But is a scientific fact the same as being true?

Sometimes a scientific fact is falsified by newer and better science. That's how science works. So while we assume it is rare, a scientific fact can be false in reality, especially in the short run.
I really don't like getting into that whole "evolution isn't a fact, it's a theory" argument, but I think it's worth noting that several widely held beliefs were later disproved: 
  1. Letting leeches suck your blood will cure disease
  2. The earth is flat
  3. The sun revolves around the earth
  4. Pluto is a planet
So while certain bits of information are considered facts or theories (depending on who you ask), those bits can change depending on what we know or how we define them. #religion
Christian group attendance (2) Apr 18, 2007
I've found from my ongoing experience with Christianity that most groups (i.e. Bible studies, age-specific groups, location-specific groups, etc.) have a mentality suggesting that they think attendance is mandatory for a properly functioning Christian.  This belief evidences itself with statements like, "We have this group that meets every week; I can't understand why that person doesn't come."  While this belief is usually well-meaning and non-confrontational, it almost always looks and comes across negatively.  Many leaders, in their zeal to encourage attendance and build personal relationships with God (both are great things), overlook the fact that different people practice Christianity differently.  For one person, it could mean attending your Bible study.  For another person, it could mean not attending your Bible study and instead doing something else.  For the record, I would say most leaders acknowledge this fact and mainly want to encourage people to do something in their relationship with God.  But some leaders think their group is the group to attend, which makes it sound like it's the only way to get to God.  And this is obviously untrue.  Christian groups exist to bring people together and closer to God.  If a person doesn't see these effects in their life and wants to try something different, who are we (as group leaders) to stand in their way? #religion
Bible reading summary Dec 31, 2006
I'm done.  I finished reading the Bible in a year.  Similar to the halfway point, the second half went pretty well and I was able to stick to the plan.  Here are my thoughts and comments about this particular Bible-in-a-year system: 

The good
I got through the entire Bible, arguably one of the most significant books in the history of the world, and obviously integral to the world of Christianity. 
The daily schedule meant that I felt compelled to read every day, otherwise I'd get too far behind. 
It was better than last time, which had me reading from a different book each day, coming back to where I left off every 7 days. 
The bad
The daily reading was about 15-20 minutes, which isn't easy to do on a daily basis. 
The schedule got monotonous after a few months, and it quickly became a thing I did just to get it done. 
Reading via a set schedule missed the point of it:  To develop a closer relationship with God by learning more about him through his word. 
In the future
Chronological.  The books and events aren't organized in the order of occurrence, and there are reading guides and specific chronological Bibles that put everything in proper time order. 
Next up, I'm doing a nice simple little daily devotional.  I haven't decided what it'll be yet, but I know I need a break from the norm. 
#religion
Puzzle pieces Dec 4, 2006
I heard an interesting thing recently:  The main difference between a person who believes in something and a person who doesn't is that the believer focuses on what's known, while the non-believer focuses on what's unknown.  As an analogy, consider Christianity.  It's a religion with lots of beliefs, and along with those beliefs come a bunch of holes.  There are some pretty reliable knowns (Jesus existed, he claimed to be God, his early followers were willing to die for their belief in him as the Christ) as well as some potentially show-stopping unknowns (existence of God, infallibility of the Bible, creation/evolution/big-bang/monkeys).  If we think of the whole thing as a puzzle, the knowns are puzzle pieces in their proper place and the unknowns are [obviously] missing pieces from the puzzle.  The analogy I heard had to do with a painting of the Mona Lisa.  If an average person saw the painting with a few puzzle pieces missing, he/she would easily be able to identify the painting even though it wasn't complete.  The same can be true of Christianity.  Even though we don't have all the puzzle pieces, we can still believe in it by focusing on what's there instead of focusing on what's not there.  I definitely don't have all the answers.  If anything, I have the same number of doubts as the standard person.  The only difference between me and the standard person is that I choose to focus on what's known instead of what's unknown. #religion
Biblical infallibility (2) Dec 1, 2006
Most Christians believe the Bible is the infallible, inspired word of God.  If that's true, it gives credibility to the beliefs of millions of people and essentially proves Christianity to be true.  If it's false, it pretty much destroys the claims of Christianity and the faith of its believers.  So it's no wonder why it's a big issue in Christendom. 

Here's my one little example that doesn't necessarily prove anything but merely illustrates a point:  Let's say I ask a New York Giants fan to repeat the following statement:  "The Philadelphia Eagles will win the Super Bowl this year."  It's quite possible to successfully repeat this phrase verbatim, without hesitation and without a second thought.  However, there are at least 3 factors that could introduce error: 
  1. For a football fan, any talk of the Super Bowl is a touchy subject, especially at this point in the season, and especially if your team hasn't been doing well lately.
  2. Giants fans hate the Eagles, so any statement in favor of the Eagles will have a tendency to be skewed.
  3. It's almost certainly an untrue statement.  Based on the Eagles' current record (and recent performance), they have almost no chance in the world of getting to the Super Bowl, much less winning it.
So right there we have the fact that it's a sensitive issue, it's a positive statement about an enemy, and it's a lie.  Yet, I'm absolutely certain that a person could repeat these words exactly as I say them, without introducing any error. #religion