Dear MrCrowder.com subscribers, readers, friends and family,

Today I have given MrCrowder.com a new home over at Tumblr. I will leave mrcrowder.wordpress.com up and available for the foreseeable future. Over the coming days I will be transporting my top 10 posts from the WordPress site to the new Tumblog. This switch will allow me to update more frequently and easily with photos, links, and quotes alongside the occasional longer piece of writing. Hope you enjoy!

thanks,
Petey

This Is Sand

Jim just introduced me to this website. Do you have the free time at work/home/school to be creative with this? Check out their gallery for ideas and inspiration.

“A book has but one voice, but it does not instruct everyone alike.”
ThomasKempis

the TOTUS

the blog of President Obama’s teleprompter

“Christians must again understand that their first task is not to make the world better or more just, but to recognize what the world is and why it is that it understands the political task it does. The first social task of the church is to provide the space and time necessary for developing skills of interpretation and discrimination sufficient to help us recognize the possibilities and limitations of our society. In developing such skills, the church and Christians must be uninvolved in the politics of our society and involved in the polity that is the church. Theologically, the challenge of Christian social ethics in our secular polity is no different than in any time or place — it is always the Christian social task to form a society that is built on truth rather than fear. For the Christian, therefore, the church is always the primary polity through which we gain the experience to negotiate and make positive contributions to whatever society in which we may find ourselves.”

StanleyHauerwas

I’m debating switching MrCrowder.com from a WordPress site to a Tumblr site.

The only major downside to Tumblr is that it doesn’t allow comments. The minor downsides are that I can’t (without the help of custom HTML, which is a possibility) add any kind of Blogroll or Weblinks and it’s also not as web search friendly as Blogger and WordPress (meaning less traffic). 

The upsides aren’t really that huge, except that I really would love some sort of micro-blogging opportunity that’s between a full blog and Twitter. The iPhone app for the Tumblr is much more capable than the WordPress app as well. 

Any thoughts? 

Check out my Tumblr

“Wherever St. Paul went, there was a riot. Wherever I go, they serve tea.” NTWright

“The best theology would need no advocates; it would prove itself” KarlBarth

Headlines like these are all over national and local media news. It happened here in Dallas, so both the public reaction and local commentary have been strong. For a couple of opinionated articles, click here or here. The video clips are there. Simple recap: A young police officer chases down Ryan Moats, NFL player who ran a red light with his emergency flashers on to get to the hospital. His wife and other family members were in the car, and they were making a visit in haste to see Moat’s wife’s mother, who was moments from her death. The police officer, on some sort of powertrip, refused to acknowledge his humanity and decided to stick to the letter of the law. He made Mr. Moats wait outside, arguing him into submission, while he wrote him a traffic violation and caused him to miss the passing of his mother-in-law. Talk about heartless. Here’s a transcript of the high points in the conversation:

One of the saddest moments of this whole story is that this young police officer didn’t believe he did anything wrong after being forced to watch the video replay with his superiors. He didn’t see a problem with his actions.

Which begs the question: what is the purpose of the police force?

Are they supposed to “serve & protect?” Or use their power to enforce the letter of the law at all costs?

Unfortunately, it seems that (at least for this officer) the duty to enforce the black and white of the law superseded the call to serve & protect. If I understand it right, then the purpose for becoming an officer is to serve their community. To make the streets safe, and for the welfare and well being of the citizens to be of the utmost importance. And yet it can go horribly wrong, like when an officer’s motivation for career and even training lead the job to be about being given the right to wield the law to its fullest extent.

And for all the links and pictures, that’s really as far as my analysis of the situation goes. There are enough people who are in better positions to critique this man and the incident. 

So why write about it? 

Well, naturally, I was thinking about how it applied to church & ministry. And unfortunately, I think it applies very well. 

It seems that the call to ministry should be to serve & empower. But perhaps it’s superseded by something else. 

Some people seem to think it’s about bashing people over the head with “authority.” And even others think it’s about using the power given to them as the “minister” to expand their territory, ego, and/or influence. Some use their career-given power and authority to enforce an austere moral authority through guilt, control, and all sorts of legislation. 

You see, here’s the thing: the purpose for the “power” distributed by the systems of law enforcement/general citizens is mutually agreed upon for the welfare of the community. So while it seems like the police hold the power, actually the power should be held by the responsibility to serve the common good. The cops gain the power when it’s in the best interest of allowing them to uphold the public good.

And the same is true in ministry. Congregants submit to ministers because of the mutual agreement that the spiritual growth & discipleship of the community (which means the spiritual growth & discipleship of the individual) will be the most important thing. So what’s supposed to hold the power is not the pastor, or the lay person, or even some lay-governing body–what’s supposed to hold the power in the Church is the common discipleship and growth of the people. The common good. 

I call upon those of you in churches to examine where the power extension of the minister(s) or even lay people violates the common discipleship of all. If not, you may end up with a situation like the police and the hospital. The power of the minister or even the organization will take precedence over the good of the people. And that’s a dangerous way to expose the family of God.