This weekend is going to be long, and dare I say, relaxing? All I plan on doing is reading a few books and a tackling a little bit of freelance. Friday I was only in the office long enough to check my email. Today, I have no plans; tomorrow, no plans; and Monday, my family is coming over for a little memorial day cookout and to experience Chris’ and my new digs (we moved a couple weeks ago).

I have 3.20 books I plan on completing this weekend. Have you read any of them?

1) Finish “Being the Body” by Chuck Colson. I have about 80 pages left.

2) “Confessions of a Pastor” by LifeChurch.tv Pastor Craig Groeschel. This book landed on my desk yesterday, courtesy of Terry Storch. [edit: done.]

3) The Organic God by Margaret Feinberg. This book also landed on my desk yesterday, courtesy of my boss, Bill. She has spoken at some conferences he helps organize, and I get the privledge of meeting her in the fall.

4) I Sold My Soul on eBay by Hemant Mehta. You can meet Hemant at FriendlyAtheist.com, but after skimming this book, Chris’ impression of it (and his actually conversing with Hemant some), I am really looking forward to reading an intelligent and respectful view from an atheist on the American Church.

So, those are my plans…How are you spending your Memorial Day weekend?

You probably don’t know this man. His name is Clark Adams. Who is Clark Adams? Allow me to quote a blog I found which described him quite well.

Clark was a long-time board member of the Internet Infidels (and for many years its public relations director) and a frequent speaker and attendee at atheist, freethought, humanist, and skeptical events. He was a jovial, funny man whose talks about atheism in popular culture were always crowd-pleasers. He was not particular about what label to put on his nonbelief, and was supportive of all groups that promoted rationality and critical thinking, including the “brights”–though he did not care for what he called “religion without the god stuff.”

I found out yesterday afternoon via my feed to FriendlyAthiest.com that Clark had committed suicide.

Something mentioned amongst the condolences on the post caught my attention, and saddened me. Someone named Holly wrote (emphasis mine):

I noticed some posts about clinical depression on that board and realize that clinical depression can and sometimes does lead to suicide, but what people seem to be overlooking is how prejudice against non believers can cause distress to people who do not believe in God. I don’t think many people realize how distressing this can be. Non-believers are a stigmatized group and I remember Clark mentioned experiencing this stigma personally. Thus, I think it’s important to look at broader societal attitudes and behaviors toward non-believers rather than just trying to get inside of Clark’s head and diagnose him with a psychological illness. Even if Clark experienced clinical depression, I’d be shocked if the prejudice toward non believers didn’t play a major role in his depression.

I have to admit. Holed up here in my little office perched on the third floor of one of America’s biggest churches, this isn’t something that crosses my mind very often. It’s easy to think that as the church, we are making such a difference in the world and no doubt, we are, and almost daily I hear of or read about something positive that churches are doing in the lives of people or in their communities.

But let’s not play dumb here. Holly has a very valid point. Aside from the extreme “turn or burn” preachers in our day, we “modern, contemporary” Christians probably do an equal part of stigmatizing those of different (or no) faiths. The “unchurched”…the “lost souls we must save!!”…I have far too often encountered the almost immediate and disapproving looks and attitude that so many of us habitually carry around when discussing someone who is a “wayward child” or “bless his heart, he’s just so lost.”

I am ashamed that I have not made it a bigger priority in my own life to be more sensitive and less prideful in my faith. And as the title of this post says, I pray for mercy and forgiveness because we know not what we do.

The only thing is…we should.

We should know. And we should love.

“Life beats down and crushes the soul and art reminds you that you have one.” - Quote by Stella Adler

[HT: Randy Elrod]

about every three to four months, i run solid. 110%. i am an unstoppable force. and do not dare stand in my way. my husband, close friends, and newest officemate andrew can attest solidly to that portrait. i think i need to be the heroine that saves all…

and at the end of those three to four months, i crash. i hit a wall. hard. physically, i can’t sleep, eat, my heart starts doing these weird fluttering beats and the thought of even moving the clothes from the washer to the dryer is overwhelming.

i hit that wall over this past weekend. working carefully and diligently on a side project, i convinced myself my work was too important to let something physical hinder my ability to tackle the task at hand. which only threw me harder and harder into the wall.

[if one were to visualize this, one must also visualize the outline of a 5'6" medium framed female impressed into such a wall.]

i arrived at work tense monday, fluttery and wanting to hide under my desk. noting something off-kilter, our lovely department admin michele comes in with some encouraging words:

go home.

that is all it took. i finished a few things and went home at 10 am. chris, who assisted me (as we are down to one working car), on his way back to work took my laptop.

he took my heroin.

i was forced to rest. he made me solemnly vow not to do anything (because i really wanted to vaccuum) until at the earliest 4 pm.

and i did.

and i hated it.

it is so difficult for me to relax (sans medication). anyone else have this problem?

there are several conferences going on this weekend for those of us who seem to live, eat and breathe church and leadership and creative stuff. i personally have sworn off conferences for the time being as i need to refocus where and how i get my information. but i was reading about some of the sessions at the daybreak conference (which i attended in 05) over at tim steven’s blog. pretty typical leadership conference bullet points, but this one kind of gave me that “alarmed” feeling in my spirit.

i realize i am not there, and quite possibly some of you are, so maybe the reason i am misunderstanding this statement is because it’s a bullet point taken out of context. if that is the case and someone can explain this further to me, please do.

but alone, i kind of find the content disturbing. tim noted:

This morning at the Creative Infusion Conference at Daybreak, I enjoyed a breakout session on Creative Leadership by Terry Woychowski, and executive with General Motors. Some notable quotes…

* The single most important element in your ministry is leadership. More important than worship, discipleship or missions. Because without good leadership–you can’t do any of that.

you can read the rest of the list here

i left a comment on his blog and said:

Some good stuff on leadership, but my heart kind of screeches and shoots up a thousand red flags on #1.

Maybe I am just being overly concerned with semantics but somehow I think obidience to and communion with Christ should replace the word “leadership” there.

That is why so many pastors get themselves in trouble…leadership becomes their God.

[[steps of soapbox]]

what do you think? taking this at face value, do you agree or disagree with this statement? i lovingly encourage any thoughts and opinions. i know very well that maybe i just don’t get it…but it sounds really off-base to me.

[[edit: as a result of a comment questioning the faith of Dr. Woychowski, his bio from the conference website reads:

Dr. Woychowski has been active in civic and volunteer work. He developed and led the efforts of his community’s involvement in setting up refugee camps in Albania and Kosovo during the conflict in the Balkans, making three trips to the region during that crisis. He has served his community as a paramedic and is the lead elder at his church.

well?