Upgrades vs. Transformation

I believe it was Henry Weinman that said, "God is that which transforms us in ways that we cannot transform ourselves."

Too often the church, however, has acted like we can indeed transform ourselves. Yet Transformation is an activity of the Spirit. It sometimes happens in unexpected ways and in ways that we can't understand and from the least likely of places.

Upgrades we can do. Incremental changes, we can do. Yet if we are not careful, our attempts to upgrade ourselves can make us regress.

I think I belong to the Regressive Church of Jesus Christ of former latter day saints. Or at least that is part of who we are.

Ronald Regan asked the question in 1980, "Are you better off now than you were 4 years ago?" He framed the debate and won the election. Yet I yearn for a 2nd term for Jimmy Carter. Things would have been better, right?

The year 1980 was the RLDS Church's 150th Anniversary. We were a better church then. No women in the priesthood, that was bad. Yet we were a healthier church in many waves. The body was healthier.
There were women and men who courageously opposed calling women into the priesthood, not because they were anti-woman, but because they were anti-hierarchy. Those brave women and men were right.

I believe in the priesthood of all believers. The true priesthood system of the 1st Century church. All are called. All can be ministers. All can be priesthood. All might be saints.

The Anabaptists were right, but they were martyred for their beliefs.

Priesthood cannot simply be reformed, it must be transformed.

Simple & Wise

A wise seer wrote me that "simple & wise" was her mantra.

The words seems like cool waves running over me. Simple and wise.

Complicated and Technical. I think that has been too often my mantra. Yet I found when I crashed, my technology crashed and I was lost.

GPS is kick-ass, but only if you have power and a good map. A compass that can help almost all the time. A rod of iron, amazingly helpful.

Does anyone know where to find a good ebay deal on a Liahona?

Seperation, Transformation & Return

Sharon Parks in Critical Years, talks about the Shipwrecks of ones life.

Sometimes the shipwreck is like the Minnow and other times its like the Titanic.

Bob Denver made a pretty awesome career about playing a slapstick castaway. And he is forever an icon in popular culture. Plus, he is the guy that could have hooked up with Ginger or Mary Ann, but resisted. That is frickin' courage. He should be a hero to those of us in recovery just on that basis alone.

Please don't think that Gilligan's Island is my favorite TV Show. Hardly. But you can't understand Survivor (or any of the ripoffs) without first knowing about the Black & White version of Gilligan's Island. I didn't read this somewhere (or maybe I did at TVBarn), but I know it. I know it is true, because I lived it.

Culture is what is missing from the Wesleyan Quadrilateral. The extreme challenge to the church is how, not to tell stories. But to the root metaphors of THE Story. Joseph Campbell helped popularize the works of Carl Jung on this issue.

There is a collective unconscious. I don't know if that reflects the mind of God, or reflects the culture. Whatever the case, there is A story. A cingular, I mean singular story. I can sing about it (decently), or play an instrument (worse) or blog about (hopefully better than average).

A C+ in the Kingdom. Better than average. Yeah, that is a freakin' life. But God doesn't call us to be average or even specialists. He calls us to into being and sends us into mission. (I know this to be true because Commission magazine told me so, in 1979).