CHristian Church Congregations - Stop Using People

I suppose "being used" is better than not being noticed at all - (there's always something to be grateful for) - but I'm coming to the realization that the local Christian church I'm working for was trying to exploit me and the kids I work with, trying to use us to drum up some club members for the pews on Sunday. They're not really looking for Christian fellowship in a spiritual sense but more people to eat chocolate cake with each Sunday in a empty McDonald's Hamburgers "Billions-served" way.

They started a outreach program in music that I was hired for and was told that it was an educational outreach project. Not the truth. A deceptive lie. It turns out they were looking to boost number in their congregation and the project is just a ruse to try to achieve this. Although the project is reasonably successful for what was advertised for and serves well for an educational outreach project, it hasn't boosted their congregation numbers.

So, they shun the children involved in the project and the project itself. It doesn't serve them, so it's of no value- or at least of no value they understand. It's like a narcissist that discards another when their usefulness is finished. The community, the children, the project and I were being used for these folks selfish purposes. They don't communicate, don't participate or take any responsibility for the project they've initiated. When the lie didn't work, they try to abandon it the way a narcissistic parent drops a child that doesn't perfectly mirror the parent's image.

Using people seems to be a common Christian church practice and it needs to stop if the church wants to be a healthy place for worship. It's one of the reasons young people are looking elsewhere for a spiritual path and guidance, rather than the neighborhood church. Deceiving people, trying to or misleading them into following will catch up to you - if it works at all.
Even though this church has managed to bring more people into the church, they aren't the kind of people they're interested in befriending or associating with. And it shows. The body language to the community is, "we invite you, but we're not interested in you."
It's a toxic facade, not a church.

Hopefully not a church Jesus would approve of.

Life is happening without making other plans

I suppose we all make plans of some sort. I buy tickets ahead of time for concerts or plays or whatnot. I have a general sketch of where I'll wind up on any given day or how the week will lay out. But the rest of it? A mystery.

Right now I'm on "stay-cation." Want a vacation, but can't really afford the traditional kind. So I accepted the restriction. But I'm in a wonderful old Victorian-era house for a couple of months this summer in a new section of town, so I declared it a vacation about half way throught the stay. A mental state in which I free myself to spend a little doing fun things. Concerts, ball games, fireworks at the riverfront, playing banjo with folks at the farmer's market. I didn't really plan any of it. It just unfolds by staying in the presence of the present presents.

And met some great kids this summer so far. Of late I've found myself in the company of several boys who have dads who have passed. Women watch over them and take care of them, but there's a need I sense here. Too many young boys are fatherless, either through death or abandonment. Too many men are too busy with careers and selfishness to spend a little time with these kids.

As the "stay-cation" days unfold, more opportunities come out.
There's so much all around us that we miss. With a new outlook, the familiar can seem like a vacation in a far off place.

We travel too much. We're in constant motion for no necessary purpose really, other than seeking the thrill of motion. Seminars, conferences, business trips, yak, yak, yak...

It is part of the addiction to oil. Cheap gas=cheap travel. But the long term consequences are washing up on shore.

If I did a traditional vacation, I would probably rent a place in some quaint, historic place with cobblestone streets. I'd go to some concerts, play some music, go to some outdoor Shakespeare, bike around some trails, hang out in some pubs, cook, go to some restaurants, take in a couple of movies.

And I'm doing it.

could have stayed and got aquainted
could have stopped and said hello
instead of rushing off to nowhere
instead of running for the door

now i've stop looking out the window
i've stop waiting by the phone
i've given up on givin'
i'll find a new love to explore.

Projections

How many of our conflicts with ourselves or with others are simply the work of some inner conflict inside our own heads that we try to work out with someone else? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DO4nHn_WfM&feature=related

Projections

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P07ek1HoFrg&feature=related

Life is what happens ...

"Life is what happens while we're busy making other plans" - John Lennon wrote in one of his songs. I catch myself trying to create a seperate path of my own making rather than following life's journey as created by a more wise source - the source of all. I have to catch myself at times and just let life happen without trying to control it or manipulate it.

When I look back, I usually see that my own will has led me astray. While the good choices were there, I ignored them.

I see others do that all the time as well. Pushing their way along trying to be in control, or an illusion of control. Little steamrollers. Vainly projecting an aire that they know what the hell they're doing, but in the meantime life is happening and they're missing out. Running amuck in silly theories and surrounding themselves with even sillier company that upholds the self-deception.

Busy making other plans while life happened.

New Year Resolutions

I do these every year. The year I make the resolutions, they seldom come true. But if I persist, they find they're way to fruition in years after I've forgotten I've made them.

This year:

1)Back to watching what I'm eating. I've gained four inches around the belly since I've been back in the midwest. I could blame it on the lifestyles here, but I'm the one responsible. There's a lot of negative influences that waddle about leading me to believe that bad food is "good." But I have to resist and just tell them I don't agree and take care of myself in this department. But it's like being in the core of a dysfunctional family, you start adapting just to get along.

2) Take up the dobro and get some lessons.

3) Have to make some art. I've stopped being as creative since being here. There's something about the lifestyle here, the people, getting involved with a church - that's cut off my creativity. Not happy with what I'm building here completely. The church folk are so conformed. I think they know it too. They go through these rituals and uphold practices that are all a part of passing down a religion. I understand that. But it hardens a creative head. Recently, a priest tried to start an experimental service apart from the "regular" service. He asked me to play the music. I played interpretaions of the hymns. The congregation just can't do it. When they sang, it was at a conformed tempo and I had to conform to them on the spot. No deviation in tempo or interpretation allowed in their practices, perhaps in their lives. They held a service over the holidays where they held up cue cards that read, "Amen" at certain points - like a TV audience that's conformed to laughing at certain points, whether there's anything funny or not.

I can feel myself getting grey and I don't like it. Is that what Jesus wants?

4) Relationships - I still struggle with this one year after year after year. I think the struggle is with fantasy vs. reality and always has been. We live in an era of illusions and fantasies. It's very hard these days to really decipher what you're getting into with the facades people put on and parade around in. I have a tendency to become smitten with a fantasy and don't trust myself to make good choices in relationships. I've disappointed myself so often. It's not the other person's fault. I've hung clothes on them they had no intention of wearing most of time. Some are truly deceptive, mentally ill people. Most are completely innocent. But I need to open up a bit more and take more chances. Get over my own fantasies and see them for what they are and accept them, good and bad~~ both. For both is what people are and always have been. No one is enlightened, perfect creatures on this earth. They are human. And if they wish to be loved unconditionally, they have to accept that.
Being loved in an adult sense means being accepted both good and bad. Loved only for what is "good" is fantasy.

Thank God the master painters saw humans for what they were (are.) They showed us humans in an imperfect state and created beauty of it. Present society and media only show us humans in the perfect state of "celebrity." Hair combed,teeth white, perfectly dressed,perfectly thin, perfectly tanned, tailored, and conformed to what is acceptable. Perfectly boring in my book. Ever noticed how many times people say "perfect" when something is agreeable these days?

Roots Music

I've taken up the study of roots music and passing it along to young, new music students. Concerned these days about a lack of American heritage being available. As a society, we're jabbering about diversity of incoming immigrant populations, but neglecting assimilation.

In Los Angeles, Babel has risen with this polyglot of languages of the newly-arrived. They splinter the city into various small ethnic enclaves. One can literally spend the day out and about and 80% of the time never hearing the English language spoken. I say that and many will remark, "how cool..."

Hardly.

We're gaining diversity, but losing our own heritage. It should be passed along to immigrants. We can start with song. American folk songs. I've worked with many, many immigrant children who have never heard even the most common of our American song. Songs we take for granted, but would never do without as part of our own childhood.

Music is neglected in their schools as well. Most are public school students and music always faces severe budget cuts or neglect in favor of math and science studies. Politicans, school boards and "education experts" are misleading us on almost all fronts, including this one.

Roots music is scattered with American gospel and religious hymns. These are also shunned by public systems like schools, and government-sponsored cultural programs, because of that distasteful subject to many - religion.

The simple, three and four chord structure of most American folk musics make for great teaching tools. For generations, music was passed along on the front porches of Americans in community music circles just by listening and attempting to play-along. Using this method of teaching makes for good community building and efforts in decreasing loneliness and combating depression prevalent in our present society of shallowness, celebrity worship and narcississm.