Coffee Hour

We now interrupt this wedded bliss for some blog reviews

Adventures in Small Group Ministry
Peter writes about blurring the distinction between lay and ordained ministry. I’m of two minds. I’ve met a UU minister or two whose insights could easily be bested by the average layman. Those people use their status as the minister to peddle really mediocre ideas. Hate that. That having been said, I’ve been to a whole lot of lay services that basically boiled down to talks on gardening or politics or the logistics of running a church. Those aren’t sermons, kids, and even the worst trained minister grasps that.

The Boy in the Bands
Scott Wells mentions that Ikeas sometimes have cafeterias that have really good meatballs (though he fails to mention that they have really good salmon, too) and segues into talking about the Swedenborgians, who sound like they fit somewhere between Mormons and folks into eckankar on the scale of people who believe weird things. It’s worth a look.

Call and Response
Has an advent service about the preparations for Chrismahanukwanzakah. I find the idea of us basing our services on a holiday invented by Virgin Mobile that combines the most shallow aspects of two religious holidays and a cultural one rather depressing, but no service that includes Lawrence Ferlinghetti poetry can be all bad, and they did seem to do reasonable things with parts of it. Still, ick, y’all.

Facilitating Paradox
Links to a really excellent article about Ned Flanders as a symbol for society’s view of evangelical Christians

I Am a Druid
Morgan writes about a druid Episcopal priest who has had to renounce his druid-hood to keep his job. It would be interesting to hear more about the facts of this one.

Presbyopic Myopia
Has a really thoughtful interesting take on American culture and why we haven’t gotten Bin Laden. Good stuff.

CC