Good morning, and a very happy March Forth day to you and yours. Yes, that’s right, I said it…March Forth day. Chris Edmonds, a friend and fellow youth ministry leader, is on a crusade to get this day declared a national hloiday, because its the only date that’s also a command.
So, on this day, may God bless you with the grace, the wisdom, the courage to March Forth!
http://toobaditsraining.blogspot.com/
Seriously - click the link, start at the beginning (May 2006), and read this blog. Made me want to be better at my job and my life.
Just saw this article on CNN - about a new study from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life that says that Americans change churches at a surprising rate.
From the article:
“The American religious economy is like a marketplace — very dynamic, very competitive,” said Luis Lugo, director of the Pew Forum. “Everyone is losing, everyone is gaining. There are net winners and losers, but no one can stand still.”
“More than one-quarter of American adults have left the faith of their childhood for another religion or no religion at all, the survey found.”
“The religious demographic benefiting the most from this religious churn is those who claim no religious affiliation. People moving into that category outnumber those moving out of it by a three-to-one margin.”
“The majority of the unaffiliated — 12 percent of the overall population — describe their religion as “nothing in particular,” and about half of those say faith is at least somewhat important to them. Atheists or agnostics account for 4 percent of the total population.”
“The Roman Catholic Church has lost more members than any faith tradition because of affiliation swapping, the survey found. While nearly one in three Americans were raised Catholic, fewer than one in four say they’re Catholic today. That means roughly 10 percent of all Americans are ex-Catholics.
The share of the population that identifies as Catholic, however, has remained fairly stable in recent decades thanks to an influx of immigrant Catholics, mostly from Latin America. Nearly half of all Catholics under 30 are Hispanic, the survey found.”
How many times have we heard it? The question is not will our children have faith, but will our faith have children.
Last summer I finally broke down and became an ipod person. I had resisted for many years – mainly out of a disdain for Apple products, and partially from a desire not to conform. I had a good system going, where I used my pda phone and a memory card as an mp3 player. This worked well for me, except for the fact that I like to be able to play mp3’s at youth events as gathering or background music – and when I played them from my phone I ran the risk of getting a phone call (over the amp my phone was hooked up to) right in the middle of an intense prayer session or some such thing. Beyond the need for a dedicated mp3 player, I also stumbled into the world of podcasts last Spring, and now I’m hooked. And I have to admit, itunes is far and away the easiest and most option-filled platform for downloading and synching podcasts. Anyway…this afternoon I decided it was time to clean out my podcast subscriptions.
Out:
On the edge (gonna give them one more try and see if I can get into them):
Survived the Purge:
New Additions:
So I called the city to see what the regulations were about where I would need to put my new mailbox, as in how far back from the street, etc…. When I started to explain that I thought a snow plow had taken it out and I was calling to see what I needed to know to replace it the guy stopped me and told me that they would take care of it. I told him that I couldn’t be completely sure it was clipped by the plow and not knocked over by the snow coming off the plow and that I honestly didn’t expect them to fix it, and he said not to worry, they would be out tomorrow to replace it with a temporary box (until the ground thaws), and then he actually thanked me for not being a jerk about it. Very cool. Very cool indeed. Way to be a rockstar, city guy.
Okay, so the snow day (actually, it turned out to be a snow day and two thirds) that started out with me watching the Karate Kid ended with me shoveling 12 inches of snow out of my driveway and searching through snow drifts for my mailbox - which, it seems, lost a battle with a snow plow driver. Fun fun fun (if I keep telling myself that maybe I’ll believe it).
In other news, I’ve gone “Inside the Youth Minister’s Studio,” ala Scott Miller. This was my first podcast, and it was fun. I wasn’t looking forward to hearing it, because usually I can’t stand the sound of my own voice on a recoding, but somehow it came out pretty tolerable. And, thanks to Scott’s mad editing skills, I didn’t end up sounding like a complete doufus.
Alright, back to work. Hope your Lent is off to a good start!
Heavy snow and an early dissmisal from school finds me at home watching “The Karate Kid.”
“Danielson, must learn balance. Balance good, karate good. Balance good, everything good. Balance bad, better pack up, go home.”
Ain’t it the truth.
I give you my two favorite “random factoid” websites. Good for at least an hour’s worth of wasted time.
The first is actually not all that random - Slate.com’s “The Explainer” gives answers to questions generated from current events - for example - did you know that residents of American Somoa send 9 delegates to the Rep & Dem nominating convention? The archive is definitely worth a look if you like semi-useless trivia.
The second, however, is completely random - The Straight Dope will help you win arguments about things like cow-tipping and why kamikaze pilots wore helmets. Good stuff.
Scott Miller (of dscotmiller.com fame) turned 50 today! Happy Birthday Scott, and many, many happy returns.
If you haven’t been to Scott’s website lately - what are you wasting your time on this lame blog for? Click on over and check out the incredible service Scott provides to the Catholic youth ministry community.
(ht to Eat the Crumbs.)