Romantic Comedy Top-Ten List

I spent the weekend rewatching numerous romantic comedies so that I could compile a list of my favorites. Other than giving me something to write about, I thought it also might help me get into the Valentines Day spirit. WRONG! Mostly what it did is remind my of how pathetic my love life is. Nevertheless, I pushed through the pathetic state of being to create this list of my favorite romantic comedies. As a disclaimer I want to state that this is not a list of my favorite romantic movies, but only of what some call RomComs. For example, not on the list are some of my favorites like the Notebook, Casablanca, Ghost and Dirty Dancing just to name a few. So given that proviso, here is a list of my Top-Ten favorite romantic comedies in reverse order.

#10 - Hitch

Why I love this movie? Because the good guy gets the girl! It doesn't always work this way in real life...most women seem to like the "bad-boys"...but the Kevin James character is not a bad boy...he is a very nice, down to earth guy...and he gets the girl! Plus, where else can you learn about the 90% rule?

I'm still waiting to have that last first kiss!

The Homeless Census

On any given night, America has more than 650,000 homeless people. During the course of a year, 1.6 million Americans will experience at least one episode of homelessness. We know these statistics because every two years the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development requires communities across the country to set aside a 24-hour period within the last 10 days of January to count the homeless.

The biennial Homeless Census is a point-in-time count that gives our community a snapshot of homelessness in our area. On January 26th and 27th, the Homeless Collaborative set out to count the homeless in Kern County. Over 180 volunteers from 40 different agencies were dispatched throughout the County's 8200 square miles to accomplish the task. Beginning with the shelter count on Wednesday night, teams of volunteers continued the next morning looking for individuals and families who spent the previous night on the street, or in a car, or in a park, or in an abandoned building or in any other place not meant for human habitation.

So why do we go to all this effort? For a number of reasons.

• It helps us to determine the extent of homelessness in our community
• It helps us to gather important demographic information regarding the homeless (how many women are homeless? Children? How many homeless Veterans do we have? etc.)
• It provides an opportunity for direct contact with this segment of the population
• It helps us to track trends and strategically plan to target specific services and housing opportunities for the homeless
• It positions us to apply for as much as $3.5 million annually in federal funding to provide new transitional and permanent supportive housing projects.

Saving My Life

Growing up I never had an issue with my weight. In fact, I was always on the smallish-side in school. I used to HATE class pictures because I was one of the boys that would get put in the front row. In high school I wrestled at 102 lbs my freshman year, and 115 lbs as a Sophomore. In the summer between my sophomore and junior years I started working at Miner's Drive-In, and over the next few years I did gain about 25 lbs (free Miner Burgers, what can I say?). Still, my weight was normal for my age and height (I am currently 5'7"...and yes I seem to have actually shrunk an inch-and-a-half since high school!). Even when I went off to college, my weight was still where it was supposed to be. So what went wrong? When did the weight gain begin? One word: Marriage!

Now, I am NOT blaming my marriage for my weight gain, I am only saying that it is when my issues and struggles with my weight really began. Due to some very poor choices while at Bible College, of all places, (and that is a whole other blog post), I found myself newly married living in Anaheim, California working a swing shift job at Kwikset Lockset Co., trying to figure out how I was going to support my new bride and a baby on the way!

Social Ministry and the Local Church Pt. 4

Public and Private Partnerships

In my final post on social ministry and the church I want to talk about public private partnerships in social work, specifically faith based agencies working in partnership with the government to help provide the safety net in our Country. For my previous posts on this issue see here, here, and here.

Before the mid 1990’s there was a real hesitancy among both the Christian community and the government to work together to help the poor and needy. Most concerns were over the so called issue of church/state separation. Unfortunately, this led to too many people falling through the cracks in the system. But things began to change, first with passage of the Welfare Reform Act of 1996 and then second, with the establishment of the White House Office of Faith Based and Community Initiatives early in the Bush Administration. Much of the literature on public/private partnerships focus on these two important events.

Charitable Choice. According to Donaldson and Carlson-Thies, welfare reform did three things. It shifted the focus of administrating welfare monies to state and local authorities. No longer would the Federal Government decide what the local welfare needs of a given area were, instead that would be up to those who were closer to the actual needs. Second, the welfare emphasis changed from writing checks to helping people become more self-supportive. Third, the government was encouraged to form partnerships with private charities and businesses. The section on private public partnerships became known as “Charitable Choice” (Donaldson & Carlson-Thies, 2003, 44-45).

A New Sermon Series

When I renewed my blog I stated that one of the reasons for blogging again was that I wanted a forum to share many of my old sermons to leave as a legacy for my family.

I have a second blog entitled The Approved Workman where many of my sermons have already been posted. I have decided to continue using that blog for all my sermons.

While reviewing that blog, I noticed that I have at least two sermon series that I previously started that I have not yet completed (Philippians and Joshua). As I have time, I will post the remaining sermons I have on those two books along with my new series I want to post on the book of James.

James has always been one of my favorite books of the Bible, especially because of its practical nature. It deals with many of the social issues that are still relevant for today. I realize many of you will not be interested in reading sermons, but I challenge you to do so and then to follow up with your own studies.

I have no claim to any special knowledge or spirituality. However, studying for these sermons was a blessing to me, I hope in turn they will be a blessing to you! I am just one sojourner on the road to understanding, I hope what I have learned will give you some light on your journey to the truth!

My introductory post can be found here.  

A Letter From a Birmingham Jail

In reading more on the "I Have a Dream" speech, I came across this letter from Dr. King written from the city jail in Birmingham, Alabama, where he was confined after being arrested for his part in the Birmingham protest conducted by "the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights and King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference against racial segregation by Birmingham's city government and downtown retailers."

The letter was addressed to eight white Alabama clergymen who on April 12, 1963, issued a statement in response to the protest titled "A Call For Unity". The clergymen acknowledged that social injustices existed but they argued in their statement that the battle against racial segregation should be fought solely in the courts, not in the streets.

God Looks at the Heart!

After to listening to Dr. King's I Have a Dream speech this morning, I thought of this verse. Dr. King had a dream that men and women would be judged by the content of their character not the color of their skin...and God agrees!

"...The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7b

The dialogue on the subject of race in this country is still too predictable and overheated. I believe we have made some headway on this issue, but we still have a long way to go. This is true not only of our country as a whole, but also of our churches as well. Sadly, some of the most segregated institutions remaining in our land are our churches. 

There are reasons for this of course, not all relating to prejudice. Most people that worship together do so because of several factors relating to music style, heritage, culture, type of preaching and denominational preferences. Race usually plays a role in where we worship only in the sense that we like to worship in the style, heritage, culture and even language we are familiar with...and there are definitely ethnic and cultural differences in worship. There is nothing inherently wrong with this, I do think however, that we miss out when we fail to stretch ourselves with respect to our worship environment.

I Have a Dream

UPDATE: Here is some interesting background on the development of the speech.

It's Politics

I created this blog back in 2005 so I could talk about things that interested me (i.e. religion, politics, sports and my family). I have always been fascinated by politics and in times past, even considered throwing my hat in the ring for local office. I first became interested in politics back in 1976 with the election of Jimmy Carter. I remember my first political debate was with a friend on the school bus. It was about who should be elected president, Carter or Ford. I also remember my Government class in High School. There I had my introduction to the concepts of left and right in politics (the whole left/right thing did not make sense to me at the time...I mean really, what is the difference between communism [left] and fascism [right]? The end result is the same). I can also remember that we were given an assignment dealing with one of the major public policy issues of the day. The handout had several policy recommendations from various political leaders. The recommendations from Ronald Reagan made the most sense to me. After that, I started becoming more interested in what the politicians were actually saying and what they believed "philosophically".

While my family mostly identified themselves as democrats, we experienced first hand the negative consequences that the economic policies of the Carter administration brought on our country. As a Contractor, my dad's business suffered greatly because of the high interest rates and the general malaise in the economy at that time. It devastated the housing market. So in 1980, I had the chance to vote in my first election. Based on what I had learned, I registered as a republican and voted for Ronald Reagan. During the 80s my own personal political beliefs solidified into what would be considered a conservative political perspective. Throw in my evangelical college education and my biblical worldview and you can see why I identified with the republican party. It was the only place I felt at home as both an economic and social conservative. While I am still a registered republican, I have always called myself a conservative first and a Republican second.

Texting for Seniors

Someone sent this to me and I thought I would share it with you since more and more seniors have embraced the technology of texting. This is not meant to be disrespectful to senior citizens...I myself will be eligible for AARP next year!

ATD: At The Doctor's
BFF: Best Friend Farted
BTW: Bring The Wheelchair
BYOT: Bring Your Own Teeth
CBM: Covered By Medicare
CGU: Can't get up
CUATSC: See You At The Senior Center
DWI: Driving While Incontinent
FWBB: Friend With Beta Blockers
FWIW: Forgot Where I Was
FYI: Found Your Insulin
GGPBL: Gotta Go, Pacemaker Battery Low!
GHA: Got Heartburn Again
HGBM: Had Good Bowel Movement
IMHO: Is My Hearing-Aid On?
LMDO: Laughing My Dentures Out
LOL: Living On Lipitor
LWO: Lawrence Welk's On
OMMR: On My Massage Recliner
OMSG: Oh My! Sorry, Gas.
ROFL... CGU: Rolling On The Floor Laughing... Can't Get Up
TTYL: Talk To You Louder
WAITT: Who Am I Talking To?
WTP: Where's The Prunes?
WWNO: Walker Wheels Need Oil
GGLKI (Gotta Go, Laxative Kicking In)

Suddenly Single

Life is full of surprises, or so the old saying goes. No one can predict the direction their life might take, given all the twists and turns along that path. Obviously, no one thinks at the start of a marriage that divorce is in their future. Because of that, many people are caught off guard when it happens to them, I know I was!

So how do you respond when a 20 plus year marriage comes to an end? I mean after the crying, and the questioning, and the heartbreak and such...what do you do with your time when you find yourself suddenly single? I realize that the amount of time you have will be largely dependent on your age and the age of your children, your vocation and other factors. For me, I found that I had more time on my hands than I wanted.

Because of my divorce, my career was in flux (realistically you cannot remain the Pastor of Family & Care Ministry while your own marriage has fallen apart), so in the beginning, I had no place to go from 9-5 each day. 

Additionally, three of my four children were out of high school, and my youngest, while living with me was busy being an active high school student. Most of my friends were married and had their own lives. I was not yet ready to start dating and I am not a barfly. So what did I do? I spent a LOT of time by myself.

Think about it, all the things you were used to doing, like watching TV, or going to a movie or going out to dinner, you generally had a built in companion to do it with. Now it is just you. I have often joked with my friends that the loneliest words in the world are "Jim, party of one, Jim, party of one!" Yeah, I eat out too much!

Social Ministry and the Role of the Christian Community

Beyond the local church, what role should the corporate Christian community play in meeting the needs of the poor and helpless? By corporate Christian community I am referring to the various local churches and para-church ministries working together for a common goal. Frankly, this does not happen as often as it should and some might even call the phrase "Christian community" an oxymoron! However, when it does occur, two approaches have been favored.

The first approach is the denominational approach. The Mennonites serve as a good example of this concept. They have developed several service organizations in which the Mennonite churches share in the responsibility of supporting. These organizations include the Mennonite Disaster Service and the Mennonite Central Committee. In addition, the Mennonite churches practice what is commonly called “Mutual Aid.” Mutual aid is seen by many as primarily a ministry to church members only, however, some view it as a ministry to the community in general. Swartley and Kraybill write:

Mennonite mutual aid is a reciprocal responsibility, based on biblical teaching, to provide material aid to other church members who face special economic and physical hardships. Such help involves labor, services, goods, gifts, and payments in both spontaneous and organized forms at local and churchwide levels. (Swartley & Kraybill, 1998, 13)

Winfeld J. Fretz sees mutual aid as Christian love in action. He sees mutual aid as a means to share that love by, “…using the resources God has given us for His glory and the good of ourselves and our fellowmen. It is a way of limiting selfish desires for the good of the larger group or community of which we are members”. For Fretz, this larger group or community could refer to the civic community or even the nation (Swartley & Kraybill, 1998, 16).

Love, Honor and Cherish

In my previous post “A Vow is a Vow is a Vow” I talked about the reason that I believe so many marriages are in trouble and why some have already died! I expected that my rant might elicit some strong responses and it did. Some responses were expressed publicly on Facebook and many more privately via emails and texts. I was accused of “pontificating” and only picking on one side of the relationship equation. While every relationship is dependent on the efforts of two individuals, especially a marriage relationship, I focused my “rant” on the men for two reasons. First, I am speaking from my own experience as a man and a former husband. Second, I have recently witnessed far too many men either intentionally or unintentionally, fail to live up to their end of the marriage covenant and I truly believe that if men committed to love, honor and cherish their wives as they should there would be far fewer divorces in this country.

I know this will sound “old fashioned” and some may even consider it sexist, but I believe that it is the husband’s responsibility to set the tone for a loving, caring marriage. More than one of the females that commented on my post pointed this out. Yes, yes, yes, of course there needs to be a mutuality in the relationship but the man who honors and cherishes his wife, will find that she will gladly love and respect him in return.

Employing the Homeless

Here's an example of why I love working with the homeless service providers in Kern County. They are doing everything they can to help ensure that the homeless are able to be successful once they utilize the programs available to them.




Just a little context. Each year the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) requires our Continuum of Care (i.e. the Kern County Homeless Collaborative) to track the employment status when a homeless individual exits one of our programs. The national goal is 20%. That may seem low, but considering these folks have been homeless for long periods of time they often have poor employment histories, and many of them lack the proper documentation to be hired. Our service providers work hard to help them obtain, not only the proper documentation (i.e birth certificates, social security cards, driver's licences etc.) but to find employment. Due to programs like the one featured in the video, we were able to increase our employment rate from 12 to 18% in one year.

Congratulations to the Bakersfield Homeless Center for doing a great job and getting the Green Waste contract renewed!

A Word to My Male Friends or A Vow is a Vow is a Vow

When you stood before family and friends and pledged to marry your lovely Bride, the minister probably asked you something like this:

“Your Name Here, do you take this woman to be your wife; to live together in the holy covenant of marriage? Do you promise to love her, comfort her, honor and keep her, in sickness and in health, and, forsaking all others, be faithful to her so long as you both shall live? If so answer I do.”

You may have also been asked to say something like this:

“I, Your Name Here, take you Her Name Here, to be my wife, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, until death do us part.”

Now I am sure that at the moment you repeated those vows or consented to them by saying “I do” you really meant them. However, over the years the reality of those words has faded, now they are a mere memory tucked away somewhere in the deep recesses of your mind. Oh you still “live together” with her, and you still “love” her but you have slacked off on the “comfort,” “honor” and “keeping” parts…and to “cherish” her…not so much!

Social Ministry and the Local Church Pt. 2

In the twentieth century the evangelical church neglected the area of social ministry. Because of a desire to avoid theological liberalism and the social gospel, because of the prevalent Premillenial eschatology, and because of the growing dominance of the government in this area, the church by and large abdicated its responsibilities toward the poor and the needy.

According to Robert Lewis, Pastor of Fellowship Bible Church of Little Rock, two evangelical church models sprang up during the time of the latter half of the twentieth century. The first type of church he calls a “need-meeting church.” This church is focused on meeting the needs of its members, which in and of itself is not a bad thing. The problem is that this focus of the church can lead to an unhealthy fixation on itself. It, the church is all the matters. In this situation a toxic self-absorption can easily develop where there church exists solely to meet the needs of its own members. There is no thought of having a spiritual impact “beyond the borders of the church property”. This type of church has a social club feel to it where all the programs and activities are designed to meet its own self-serving needs (Lewis & Wilkins, 2001, 57).

The second type of church Pastor Lewis describes is the “success mentality” church. He writes:

Seeking conformity to a culture dominated by commerce, the “success” mentality is simple: the bigger, the better, size matters. Numbers count. More is what is always needed: more people, more facilities, more staff, more money. It is a mostly polite game of Christian Darwinism: the survival of the fittest, or the church with the greatest attendance. The goal is to be in the elite class known as the “biggest church in the city” or “Top10 in the denomination” or “megachurch.”  Such churches often spend increasing amounts of money and energy putting on elaborate events to draw more people in. While correctly pointing out that churches, when healthy, should be dynamically growing, pride often infuses the “success” church with a twisted irony: the church might be recognized nationally, but it often remains a stranger to its very own community (Lewis & Wilkins, 2001, 58-59).

How sad it is for a church, to be so focused on itself, that it has no time to focus on the community in which it lives.

Social Ministry and the Local Church

I will never forget the conversation. We had just finished a week of "revival" meetings at my home church. As good Baptists, we needed to follow up the service with something to eat. Our practice was to go to J.B.'s Big Boy restaurant in downtown Yakima. It was always a treat for us young guys (and future "preacher boys") to go to the restaurant and rub elbows with the Pastor and the visiting "Evangelist." During these after service rituals we would ask questions of these men that we looked up to and held in deep respect. During one of these question and answer sessions, we asked about the ministry of the church to the poor and needy and why we didn't do more to help them in a tangible way.  "That's not our responsibility" was the answer! I remember being shocked by their answer and responding with an incredulous "What?"

Yes it is true, both of these otherwise fine men insisted that it wasn't the responsibility of the local church to help meet the needs of the poor. For these men, the ministry of the church was to evangelize the lost, to get them into heaven, not to make their earthly lives any easier.

Sadly, that philosophy still exists in many churches today. How can otherwise caring and compassionate people be so blind to the needs of others, let alone the clear teaching of scripture? I would like to address those reasons over the next few weeks.

New Year's Resolutions

“A New Year's resolution is something that goes in one year and out the other."

Resolution (Noun): [res-o-lu-tion]

1. The state or quality of being resolute; firm determination.
2. A course of action determined or decided on.
3. A formal statement of a decision or expression of opinion put before or adopted by an assembly such as the US Congress.  (American Heritage Dictionary)

For most of my life I have been fascinated by word meanings and word origins. I love word game puzzles and etymology has always been interesting to me (etymology is the study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and meaning have changed over time). I have even been known to read the dictionary from time to time. I think this goes with the territory when you are a Pastor because any good sermon preparation will involve the study of key words in the text you are expositing.

D-I-V-O-R-C-E

I grew up listening to Country music (or Country & Western as it used to be called). I did so not by choice mind you, but it was the music my parents and grandparents listened to, whether at home or in the car, it was always on. Any time I hear a Conway Twitty or Dolly Parton song today it reminds me of the two week vacation we took my freshman year in High School. On the trip we listened to a couple of Conway and Dolly 8-tracks over and over and over and over again! Growing up I remember listening to other Country greats as well, like Merle Haggard, Buck Owens, Loretta Lynn, George Jones and Tammy Wynette.