Pansexual trapeze act or bass-playing doulos?

• "I'd rather be a doorkeeper, dude, than be in pansexual trapeze act." -Psalm 84:10, very paraphrased..explanation below
  

  • "Just go low. Don't worry about getting up" -Brian Dodd

  • "Nobody recognizes apostles when they walk in the room"..Wolfgang Simson
    

Three American jobs nobody wants, per St Stephen:

Pottery teacher: Feel like throwing yourself in front of a train? Throw a pot instead! The one word that will best describe your students is "desperate-middle-aged-woman-looking for a creative-outlet-after-the divorce." A word that won't describe them, however, is "talented." There are only so many ways of patiently asking "What are you trying to make?" before you finally snap and use the kiln to make a car battery.

High School Guidance Counselor: You wake up every morning thinking "If I'm so good at finding careers, how did I wind up with this one?" At least you're not the Vice Principal.


Bass Player: It's like you made a poorly worded deal with the devil to be a rock star. Instead of fame, fortune and groupies, you stand in the shadows plucking one note for 90 minutes while the lead singer picks out a trio of coeds from the front row for a post-show pansexual trapeze act. Even worse, you're expected to room with the drummer.

-p 185, "I Am America and So Can You"

This, of course, got me thinking, about how delightfully "Kingdomed" (Tom Fuller's word) each of these callings actually are; what better training for ministry...nay, what better ministries. I long to capture the servant heart and "help others find their gifts and place" that the best of the apostolic high school guidance counselors (Amber Blodgett is queen here..if I had had her as high school counselor, I might have been spared five years of unnecessary skubala and wandering in the wild-erness) and bass players (name some, Ryan) so naturally have.

Bass players may well be best positioned to answer "WWHSD?" ..What Would the Holy Spirit Do?...That is, keep the vital rhythym alive; and let the spotlight/floodlight) fall on the Someone Else (J.I. Packer's image of the Spirit in relation to Jesus, in "Keep In Step with the Spirit").

And a pottery teacher..how close to the Kingdom do you wanna get? That's the King of King's only day job.

Len weighs in on the recent wake-up/shake-up call from Todd Bentley and Lakeland:

...Peter C Wagner unwisely hosted a recent gathering to bring apostolic covering to Todd and Fresh Fire Ministries. During a publicized gathering on June 23rd Wagner said, “This is a ceremony celebrating the formal apostolic alignment of Todd Bentley.” Wagner said that this was a formal “commissioning” equivalent to offering the the right hand of fellowship as the apostles did to Paul in Jerusalem.
He continued by proclaiming, “This commissioning represents a powerful spiritual transaction taking place in the invisible world. With this in mind, I take the apostolic authority that God has given me and I decree to Todd Bentley:

* Your power will increase.
* Your authority will increase.
* Your favor will increase.
* Your influence will increase.
* Your revelation will increase.

By now I hope the leaders who participated in this gathering are reflecting on 1 Cor.13 in the context of chapters 12-14. Perhaps a future commissioning will offer a different kind of decree:

* Your love will increase
* Your humility will increase
* Your generosity will increase
* Your love for Jesus will increase
* Your troubles will increase (1 Cor.4:7-16)
so that the life of the Son of God may be manifest in your mortal flesh..

-Len Hjalmarson, link

I sometimes think I learned how to pray at the "real" seminary I attended: scrubbing 284 toilets a week for Christian campers at RCP, in between years of official "seminary."

I recently found a great book at Dollar Tree:
"The Mind at Work: Valuing the Intelligence of the American Worker." It challenges perceptions of "lower class/lower caste" blue collar jobs. From the sleeve:

"A bridge is only as strong as its weakest weld..You're like a surgeon, but working on metal. You're taking two separate entities and making them one. So take it to heart"
-Lisa Legohn, welder and teacher.

Why isn't that in the bibliography of Church Planting 101?