Author Archives: Steve

UB Election Results

Today, we’re announcing the results of the UB elections. Actually, I posted the results on the UB website yesterday, but without fanfare. The referendum intended to unite the United Brethren church with the Missionary Church failed, getting just 43% of the votes of UB members in the United States. I’m crushed. Have been for a week, actually, since I’ve known for that long that it would die.

The strongest opposition came from a group called UBHope, a group which I helped create (inadvertently) by launching a denominational discussion forum. That’s where the UBHope people got acquainted. Stupid, stupid me.

Posting on the web was one of three parts of the plan to announce the results to the UB constituency, which is the responsibility of the bishop. But within hours of the results appearing on the website, UBHope sent an apparently already-prepared email newsletter to its own email list (which is pretty large). So, many UB people will hear the results first not from the Bishop, but from the group which fought so hard to defeat the referendum. It never crossed my mind that they would do that; otherwise, I would have waited to post the results on the web. Again, stupid, stupid, and terribly naive me.

The UBHope newsletter did a lot of preaching about kingdom-building and church growth and etc. The thing is, the churches that are fueling the bulk of the growth in our denomination are, for the most part, led by pastors who favored joining the Missionary Church–our larger churches, and our smaller progressive churches (like Anchor, my own church, which voted 35-0 in favor). And most of the people behind UBHope don’t exactly come from cutting edge churches, though you wouldn’t guess that by reading their progressive-sounding materials.

Oh my, I’m sounding like a very sore, embittered loser. In the grief process, I guess I’m in the Anger stage. Somewhere far out ahead lies Acceptance. I wonder when I’ll arrive there. I’m venting here, on this little blog designed for my own amusement. I think I feel better already.

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Who Speaks for Me?

As I predicted, big-name religious leaders are emerging, trying to become spokespersons for the persons who voted on the basis of moral values. Dobson, Falwell, Jim Wallis, and others are out there trying to speak for me. But they don’t speak for ME.

If anyone represents me, it would be persons like Rick Warren and Bill Hybels, and I hope they just stay off the airwaves.

The morals-based voters came as a surprise to nearly everyone. Nobody really tried to organize them in advance–they just showed up on their own. They were leaderless, but motivated. I think these voters will just be turned off by the religious opportunists seeking to become spokespersons for the morals-based voters. I know it turns me off.

There will undoubtedly be much attention on this audience in the 2008 election. And I’m sure, as with every election, people will tout this as “the most important election of our lifetime.” But will the conservative evangelicals turn out again? Who knows.

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NBA Thoughts

I’m a big NBA fan. Most people love the purity of college basketball, and I certainly do. But I’m more attracted to the NBA, where the best players in the world compete. The NBA has many flaws, and too many players are seriously flawed. But I still like it.

I finished reading “The Last Season,” Phil Jackson’s book about his final season with the LA Lakers. My goodness, he was hard on Kobe Bryant! But I’m sure he was fully justified. He describes Kobe as highly selfish, temperamental, aloof, and always trying to, basically, prove his manhood. Though he’s immensely talented, a team’s best player also needs to be the team leader, and I don’t think Kobe can rise to that responsibility. I imagine the goals at the top of his agenda right now are: to be the league MVP, and to be the league scoring champion. He’s too self-centered to think otherwise.

Shaq has a good situation in Miami. Duane Wade is also immensely talented, with many of the capabilities Kobe has. But he’s okay with being the “little brother,” the “sidekick.”

Jackson’s book was truly fascinating, with great insights into the game and into many players from around the league.

For too many years, I’ve been rooting for Sacramento, but they keep disappointing me. Maybe this is their year. If not, they need to remake the team, I’m afraid.

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Word on the Street

Word on the street is that the referendum on joining the Missionary Church failed. The results from several conferences are floating around, and the Central Conference figures–just 44% in favor–were released on Wednesday and quickly made the rounds. I happen to have all of the results on my computer (except for Northwest Conference, which is counting their votes on Sunday). We’ll probably be able to publish the results on Monday. I’m thinking, anyway.

I’m pretty bummed out. I fear that the United Brethren church will enter a period of “experimentation,” trying this and that and finding nothing that works. I don’t see any good scenarios out there for us as a denomination. This pains me, since I’ve served the denomination my entire working life, and have never attended anything but United Brethren churches. I love this denomination, but fear that some dark, directionless days lay ahead. I feel that a huge, huge opportunity for a bright future has been lost.

Yesterday was the funeral for Fred Bauman, father of my good friend Tim Bauman, one of the guitarists on the worship team. Tim asked four of us on the worship team to be pallbearers. Just shows how much of a “family” we are. Fred and Lena hadn’t attended church for many years, but began about five years ago after Anchor started up (which is when Tim and Alice started attending). Anchor made a difference in Fred’s life, and they were extremely faithful in attending. Whatever happens in the denomination, Anchor will move forward.

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Ping Pong Club

In light of my Sunday losses in Ping Pong to Kevin Kay, I realized I needed to get more practice. Otherwise, next time he returns from Ball State, it’ll go even worse for me. I had heard about a Tuesday night ping pong club at the Aldersgate United Methodist church on my end of town, so last night I decided to check it out.

Soon after I arrived, around 7 pm, two guys older than me arrived–one in his 50s, the other in his 60s. I wondered if they would be much competition for me. Then they started playing against each other. Wow. Another guy arrived a little later, a black fellow with, I believe, a Jamaican accent. Named Rick. Great guy.

We didn’t actually play any singles matches–just hit around. I could hold my own against the two older guys, especially when it came to just banging and returning. In an actual singles game, they would pull out some spins which I wouldn’t know what to do with, but in a slugging match, I could do okay. I didn’t get to play Rick, who is probably the best of the three. He’s amazing at returning the hardest of slams.

We ended up playing nine games of doubles–2 out of 3 games, and rotating so that each of us was teamed once with each of the other three guys. I think my team won two of the three sets.

I had a great time, and got a pretty decent workout. I’ll definitely be going back. It was a rainy night, which probably affected the number of people there, but I don’t think they have many coming anyway. They seemed delighted that someone of my calibre showed up. I think they’re used to newbies coming who can’t hold a candle to them in ability. I could. That pleased them, and pleased me.

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Sunday Losses

Tim Bauman is one of the guitarists in our worship band, and he has become a good friend of mine during the last six years since Anchor began. His father, Fred, who also attends Anchor, had a heart attack. Tim stopped by the church during the service and left word that they would be removing his father from the respirator. It was expected that he would only live another hour after that.

So it was a sad day for those of us who know and love Tim and his dad. A group of us gathered at the front of the sanctuary after the service to have prayer. Tim is a great guy, and I grieve for him.

Kevin Kay, back from his sophomore year at Ball State, wanted to play me in ping pong after the service. We’ve probably played a hundred games over the past few years, and he has only beaten me once. In fact, he’s the only person at Anchor who has beaten me in six years. But he plays a lot at Ball State, and it showed. He started off beating me the first two games (though both went extra points). I won the third game.

A new era has dawned. The age of my dominance in ping pong has officially come to an end. I can still take my game up a notch‚ÄîI’m not nearly as good as I was in college‚Äîbut I need regular practice. Otherwise, the next time Kevin comes back from Ball State, he’ll just beat me again. Can’t let that happen. I don’t want to use the excuse of being an “old man.” Gotta beat the young whippersnapper.

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Magazines Vs. Books

For about ten years, beginning around 1985, I had a goal of reading at least 52 books a year (one per week). When I began dating Pam, she, a voracious reader, adopted the same goal. We would occasionally battle to see who would end the year with the most books read. My high was in the 80s. But I can’t compete with Pam. One year, while I met my 52 goal, she read 104 books. This year, she’s on track to hit that number again. Right now, she’s somewhere around 90 books read for the year.

I met that goal for about seven years, but couldn’t keep it going. There was my Masters work, my actual book writing (six books during the 1990s), and various general excuses. But most significantly, I read magazines, and while the accumulated wordage might equal Pam’s book-reading, we haven’t figured out an equitable formula for including my magazine reading. Not that either of us really cares.

I look forward to my magazines coming. They are:

  • Newsweek and Time. I’ve been reading Newsweek since I was a kid, and we received it at home. I began taking Time during the mid-1980s. If I had to give up one, it would be Time, I guess. Newsweek tackles some more ambitious and creative ideas, like the recent review of the Presidential election.
  • BusinessWeek. I began taking BusinessWeek in the mid-1980s, probably because I got a great deal for a trial subscription. I’ve grown to really like it. Learning what is happening in the business world is a great complement to Time and Newsweek.
  • New Yorker. I discovered The New Yorker during my Masters work at Ball State, and have been taking it since around 1993. It’s weekly. The New Yorker has the best, most in-depth reporting you’ll find anywhere. And the quality of writing is exceptional. Some people say it has a liberal bent, but I don’t really see that. The reporting is very fair, and very thorough. It has long long long articles, so reading it is a commitment. I usually read maybe two articles per issue. That’s enough.
  • Sports Illustrated. I’ve always enjoyed Sports Illustrated, but have viewed it more as a guilty pleasure, compared to the hard news magazines. But I began taking it again six or seven years ago, and don’t mind indulging this guilty pleasure. >Besides, the writing is incredible. To take an event that I saw on TV and heard commentators dissect, and then provide me an article a week later that fully captures my attention–that’s good writing. The in-depth features can be remarkable. The writing quality is up there with The New Yorker, though of a different breed. As a writer, I need to be reading both of those magazines.
  • ESPN. This one is, indeed, an indulgence. We got it cheap, it comes every two weeks, and I enjoy it. Don’t need it, but enjoy it. It definitely has its own identity apart from SI.
  • Entertainment. Pam and I took this years ago, then stopped. We started again a couple years ago, after getting a good deal. It’s fun. I enjoy keeping up on celebrity/entertainment nonsense.
  • MacWorld and MacAddict. I get these monthlies at work, and devour them right away. I need to keep up on what’s happening in the Macintosh world, since I run a network of Macs. I also check out two Mac news bulletin boards every day (MacNN and Macintouch).
  • Christianity Today. I also receive CT at work, and usually read it right away.

So that’s it. Put it all together, and you’ve got a lot of reading material. But I don’t know how to count it up to equal what Pam reads in books.

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Alexander the Disappointing

Pam and I just returned from seeing Oliver Stone’s new film, Alexander the Great. What a disappointment! Overall, a pretty strange film. Stone really played up the homosexual angle with Alexander–which may be historically accurate, but not something I care to see. But beyond that, the movie was just strange. Three hours and ten minutes of strange.

It was sleeting when we left the theatre. I guess winter is here.

Yesterday I finished James Patterson’s book, “The Big Bad Wolf.” I’m a fan of Patterson, especially his Alex Cross crime thrillers. There was one that I didn’t care for–some gratuitous sexual stuff–but generally, he does good stuff. I started another one last night, “Four Blind Mice.”

Heard the referendum results from four different conferences today. Hmmm.

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The Pistons-Pacers Brawl

I was watching the Piston-Pacers game last Friday night when the brawl broke out. I missed how it actually started, since I was channel-surfing, but I came back to the game just a few seconds after Ron Artest launched himself into the crowd. It was quite a scene.

Yesterday, when Pam and I went to Indianapolis to do some early Christmas shopping, I listened to talk-radio discussions about the game all the way down and back. We now have XM Satellite radio in Pam’s new car, and between the four sports stations, someone was always talking about the fight. Sometimes, all four were. It was quite interesting.

The initial commentary, last Friday night, from the ESPN quartet almost seemed sympathetic to Ron Artest. “He had a right to defend himself.” But my gut told me the NBA would come down hard on any players who went into the stands, where they could tumble over little kids and innocent fans. And on Sunday, Commissioner David Stern took that hard-line approach. I didn’t expect the severity of it‚ÄîArtest out for the season, 30 games for Germaine O’Neill, 25 for Stephen Jackson‚Äîbut I don’t disagree with it. Stern was certainly sending a message.

I do think O’Neill’s suspension might have been excessive. I don’t think he went into the stands, and the fan he plastered was on the floor and, from O’Neill’s view, was evidently threatening someone in the Pacers organization. And then with the abuse he took just getting into the locker room….

But, good for Stern. Stephen Jackson was certainly out of control. A madman. I never liked him when he played for San Antonio, and I still don’t. I don’t really know why, but I don’t.

My only complaint is that Detroit got off easy. I don’t know who DESERVED to get hit harder. Frankly, Ben Wallace’s six-game suspension was probably a bit too much. I guess there’s no real way to penalize fans or the stadium or the Pistons organization. So, they won. And Pistons fans are probably gloating over the ability to say, “Yeah, we’re the baddest fans in the NBA!” It was a total win for them (except that they lost the game).

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The Incredibles – National Treasure

Pam and I just got back from seeing The Incredibles, the latest Pixar movie. It was a great deal of fun, with lots of humor. Very unlike any previous Pixar movie. It may well be my favorite of all of the Pixar movies thus far. We also saw the trailer for Cars, the 2005 Pixar movie. It’ll be a good one, too. We went to the Sunday 8 pm showing, figuring there wouldn’t be a bunch of kids there. And there weren’t–just a handful of adults. Very nice.

On Saturday we saw National Treasure, with Nicholas Cage. I don’t think critics really cared for it, but it was a very fun ride. Lots of history in it, and more humor than I was expecting. There is validity in calling it a modern-day Raiders of the Lost Ark–there are certainly parallels. I liked it a lot more than I was expecting, and would recommend it.

We also saw, for the first time, the trailer for the next Star Wars movie, the one which tells about the rise of Darth Vader. It looks like it’ll be a great movie. The last two (episodes 1 and 2) have not been well received, at least in comparison to the original three movies, but I’ll bet this one goes all out.

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