king david is highly over-touted

I find it incredible that King David gets the reputation he does within our churches. This is the first time I have read the whole story of David and I found a plethora of examples that if it were anyone else, they would have been overlooked, if not only the areas of injustice David inflicted (1 Sam. 1:13-16; 25:39-44; 27:8-28:2; 30:1-21, 2 Sam 17), but the amount of attention he gets for reigning for a minimal amount of time, forty years. I think we need to re-evaluate the lofty level of importance we put on David. All throughout 1 and 2 Samuel we have this picture of someone who raided villages and killed men and women, stole all the possessions and kept them for himself or his people. I would need to do a further in depth study on this, but it doesn't add up. He begins with marrying 2 women right off the bat. This is quite alarming to those who want to take the Bible as literal. (You can't say this is different because it was a different culture and time without saying that about women's roles, Paul's letters, Jesus commands, etc...) The obvious Bathsheba in 1 Sam 17. I mean if you read both Samuels, it's scattered all over the place that David is causing unjust actions and creating a pretty screwed up form of leadership.
I just think it's interesting the level of claim and fame this guy gets for being a pretty awful man. 

Women in Leadership - Specifically Church Leadership

Recently I was given an opportunity to write a letter of encouragement to women entering into church leadership. It is meant to be a letter to women who may feel or have felt discouraged due to being told by men that women do not belong in leadership areas of the church. It is also a letter to any men who feel the church is not a place for women. In the end whoever reads this, we may not agree, but I was asked to post my thoughts to my blog and I proudly do so. I enjoy having these conversations and hope that we continue to do so until the need is no longer. Anyways here was my short letter:

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I would like to take this time to express to you my passion for empowering and encouraging women in positions of leadership within and outside of the church. However, the (big C) church seems to be a difficult place for women to gain respect, whereas many organizations and companies outside of the ministry world have adopted their support of women. Many even to the point where it is not even considered a conversation because it is not tolerable to think otherwise. However, this is still an issue we need to address. 

I read this recently for my Theology class where Justo Gonzalez said that it is a problem that " the North American male theology is taken to be basic, normative, universal theology, to which women, and other minorities may add their footnotes." For entirely too long churches have been dominated by white men. Most of church doctrines were and are established by white men as well. It's not a wonder why many churches do not want to adjust and change. Whether it's based out of fear because of the "feminist agenda" or because men are threatened that they might be "wrong", either way it's incredibly unjust for women to not have a place in the church outside of the three basic women endorsed roles: Missionaries, Sunday School teachers, or Choir directors. Even more so than women having a place in the church is the the tragedy that many women do not even have a VOICE. Women can no longer be silenced by these men (and other women who have been indoctrinated in a the system where men have the sole voice). 

This problem in the church will remain a problem until we can stop having the conversation. This will only happen when women have gained respect and empowerment based off their ability and gifting and not because of their gender. 

I would encourage any woman to stay in the fight if they encounter one. Do not let anyone or any man win in silencing your voice. You have a strong voice. Your voice came from the our Creator God and there is a reason God gave you your voice: You need to use it. For too long women with great talent and gifts have been marginalized and held back from doing what God created them to do. I will fight for you for as long as I live. I will be a resource, a listening ear, or a positive voice for you or any woman if they need it. 

Please stay strong and confident and my hope is that someday we will not have to worry about this even being a thought. But until that day comes, we are relying on the women and men who are willing to say something and work together toward true equality.

You deserve it. God created you to be a leader. God does not make mistakes in my opinion. Follow through with what you know God has gifted you in. Do not let anyone else tell you differently. 

Pumped up Kicks - Foster the People

If you have not heard this song, give it a listen. I couldn't believe it when I heard it. It seems wrong in almost every way. But the sad thing is that this is the internal mental processing of a lot of kids.

I'd be curious to hear your thoughts.




Robert's got a quick hand.
He'll look around the room, he won't tell you his plan.
He's got a rolled cigarette, hanging out his mouth he's a cowboy kid.
Yeah he found a six shooter gun.
In his dads closet hidden in a box of fun things, and I don't even know what.
But he's coming for you, yeah he's coming for you.

[Chorus x2:]
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks you'd better run, better run, outrun my gun.
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks you'd better run, better run, faster than my bullet.

Daddy works a long day.
He be coming home late, yeah he's coming home late.
And he's bringing me a surprise.
'Cause dinner's in the kitchen and it's packed in ice.
I've waited for a long time.
Yeah the slight of my hand is now a quick pull trigger,
I reason with my cigarette,
And say your hair's on fire, you must have lost your wits, yeah.

[Chorus x2:]
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks you'd better run, better run, outrun my gun.
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks you'd better run, better run, faster than my bullet.


All the other kids with the pumped up kicks you'd better run, better run, outrun my gun.
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks you'd better run, better run, faster than my bullet. 

Tour de Church | two

As our church visiting continued we found our way to Northeast United Methodist Church. This place is located in Northeast, about a 2 minute drive from our house. This is a huge plus for me as I really want to be connected to our local community. It is a church that merged with another church here in Northeast. It seem evident that the church has been going through some transition. The message that the pastor spoke, as Sara said, was very intentionally aimed towards the community and almost had a sense of comfort and also truth in the difficulty that the process of merging the churches has been. I do not feel like that made a lot of sense, but overall I personally appreciated her message. I felt really connected with what she was saying I could just feel that she had carefully planned her sermon and seemed very sure of what her congregation needed, I liked that. Again, there was an organ playing music, sometimes piano, I wasn't a huge fan, but then again, I haven't been a huge fan of musical worship for some time. The church had 37 people in it. It was the 4th of July weekend so that could have been a contributing factor to the small size. The average age was probably close to 70's or more. We met Pastor Sarah afterwards and she was really great. Super nice!

Here is the link to their website.
NE United Methodist Church

Tour de Church | one

This summer has been a summer of transition. For those of you who know anything about Sara or me there has been a lot of changes. Not the least of these changes has been our decision to travel around to visit several churches as we are looking for a new church home. Now to be fair, for anyone expecting an update (which I'm sure you're not) on 6 churches (we are 6 Sundays in from June as that is when we started visiting) will be disappointed as we have not been at a church every week this summer. We have visited friends at their churches or were out of town. However, here is an update on our first church we visited.

The church is called First Congregational Church of Minnesota. We visited it on June 19th, Fathers Day. It is fairly close to our place which is a plus as that is something we both want. It is right off of 35W and 4th St by the U of M campus. The experience was pretty great. The people were great, small congregation of about 70ish. The demographic ranged from college age to elderly. 

The sermon the pastor gave was on the Great Commission and her message consisted of talking about how June 19th or Juneteenth was the day that slavery was abolished. Throughout her sermon she connected the injusices of today are the same things that Jesus spoke about in the Gospels. The things that upset us are the things that upset Jesus. She reminded me of the passage when it says "go and make disciples" that it is NOT saying go and convert a bunch of people to believe what you believe. That is how I have heard this passage preached on more than not. I really appreciated the different spin on the interpretation of the text. Disciples in Greek and Hebrew would translate to student or learner. We are to make other students of Jesus Christ. Tell them and show them who Christ is and then let God and the Spirit do the work on the person instead of telling them what to believe about Christ. 

The other significant thing I took from this visit was the song which is in my previous post, "bring many names." I cannot stand the organ, so that was not my favorite part as it sounds like everyone is dying as they sing with it, but the lyrics to this song are phenomenal. I loved the message behind it and a few of the other songs we sang. 

We then left the service and talked to a guy who has been a part of the church for quite a while and I immediately connected with him as he had been a drug counselor in a high school in the southern metro. He really didn't have any bearing on me liking or not liking the church, but he was a cool guy. We met quite a few other people in the church as well, all were friendly and wish us luck on our visit. 

Here is the website of the church if you're curious to know more about it. 

First Congregational Church of Minnesota