Tuesdays with Morris

Today, I stumbled up on the list of the 100 largest and fastest growing churches in the United States. It was quite interesting.

One thing that really stood out to me was the growing number of churches that have satellite locations. The idea of satellite churches has always been a bit bizarre to me. In fact, I find the idea of a satellite church to be very cold.

If I am going to church, I want a “live” experience. Now, I know some churches do live feed simulcasts of their services. And, some churches do every thing “live” except the message. But, if someone’s speaking to me, I want to see the “real” person. If I’m simply going to watch a screen, I can stay at home and turn on the television or go to a favorite wi-fi hot spot and download a message.

I often feel like the idea of the satellite church is closely tied to promoting the celebrity of an individual pastor. Rather than empowering new pastors to preach and teach, the main campus pastor is being broadcast to several venues. To me, this says, “I’m the best there is and no one else can fill my shoes.” But, maybe I’m being too harsh…and maybe not.

So, what is the draw of the satellite church? I guess it would have something to do with convenience. Granger Community Church recently launched an Elkhart campus. It apppears that the big push for this was reducing the drive time of their Elkhart members. Satellite campuses do open up more room in the main campus as well. So, there is the evangelistic aspect as well.

And, there are other people in attendance. So, there is the opportunity for fellowship and interaction at a satellite campus.

But, it still feels cold. Even if there is a campus pastor and a live band, it’s still weird to me.

I’d much rather see these churches empower new leaders to do the speaking at other campuses. Muncie Alliance saw the need to open up new campuses in the East Central Indiana area. Rather than streaming video of the Muncie campus services, Guy Pfanz has trained, discipled, mentored, and sent leaders/teachers to these campuses. They basically run as independent churches. But, the pastors of each campus meet together on a weekly basis to discuss each weeks teachings. I like this approach much better.

Oh well, maybe the concept of “one church, several campuses” and the satellite church is a good idea. Maybe I just don’t “get it.” For me, I just feel like, if a new church needs to be started, empower a team to start a new church and trust them to preach the Gospel. I’m pretty sure when Jesus sent the disciples, he didn’t send a video tape of his teachings.

Whoa! Now just hold your horses!

Sammie got up from her nap and told me, quite directly, “Daddy, I want lemon jello and Thomas the train!”

What would happen if we put the following verse into practice?

“Do you really love life? Do you want to be happy? Then stop saying cruel things and quit telling lies.” (1 Peter 3:10, CEV)

This weekend was pretty awesome! Emily and I made our way down to Brown County on Friday. We had lunch at the Irish Lion with our friends Timm and Susan. After a delightful lunch, we tooled around downtown Bloomington. Eventually, we made our way to Brown County, checked into our room, went for a hike and then headed into Nashville for some wine tasting and shopping. After our Nashville trek, it was back to the hotel for swimming and dinner.

Saturday morning, we had breakfast at the Inn, another hike, and some down time in our room. We headed into Bloomington before lunch, found a place to park, and hiked all over the place. We had lunch at an amazing little Mediterranean restaurant called the Casablanca Cafe on 4th street. We shopped and shopped and shopped. We visited a Latin Cultures festival in the park. We had some amazing cake, chocolate, and coffee at Blu Boy Chocolate Cafe and Cakery.

After dessert, we made our way to the football stadium for an incredible football game.

The Cards ripped up on the Hoosiers, 42-20. There’s a lot I could say about the game. However, it’s all over-shadowed by the injury to Dante Love. It appears that he will be okay after a 5-hour surgery. It was a moment, for everyone in the stadium (and many viewers at home), where the realities of life met us in a moment of sports entertainment. From the reports, I would be surprised if Love ever takes the field again…but, I’d never rule it out. It would take a special person to once again put on the pads and head out on the field. This is sad for him in many ways (the guy was leading the nation in receiving yards per game…that definitely gets the attention of NFL scouts). But, all accounts say this kid is an outstanding young man. I’m sure, after his recovery, his future will remain bright. As a parent, my heart was broken for his family. Being a parent, seeing an injury like this took on a new light as I saw his mother running onto the field. I can’t imagine the feelings and emotions one would experience watching their child endure such an injury. The whole way home, and throughout the day today, all I could think about was getting an update on Love’s condition. My thoughts and prayers go out to him and his family.

Today, after church, I headed to North Webster for the Fall Youth Rally with some youth from our church. It was nice to see some of my friends, listen to some live music and hear a pretty decent comedian.

Now, I’m watching re-runs of Arrested Development and drinking a glass of the white zinfandel Emily purchased the other day.

Last night, I ran across a passage in Anthony Bourdain’s book “The Nasty Bits” that really grabbed my attention. Those of you who know me well, are fully aware of my great passion for Guinness. It is apparent that Bourdain is also a consumer of fine hop products.

“There are few articles of faith in my admittedly jaundiced worldview, precious few things that I believe to be right and true and basically unimprovable by man or God. This, however, is one of them: a properly poured beer or ale - in my case, a hand-cranked Guinness - in a clean pint glass of correct temperature is God’s Own Beverage, a complete and nutritious food source, a thing of beauty to be admired, a force that sweeps away, for a time, all the world’s troubles. One does not drink Guinness in a vacuum-sealed pod. Context is important. The best place to fully appreciate the state of enlightenment that comes with a fine English, Scottish, or Irish beverage is, of course, that all-important institution, the pub.”

Anyone feel like joining me at the Heorot for a Guinness?

On another note, last night I made steak for dinner. I made them over the stove top with a red wine, onion, and thyme sauce. Funny thing…I asked Em to pick up a bottle of Zinfandel for the sauce (and consumption with the meal). I knew I was taking a risk…asking my sweet wine loving wife to pick out a bottle of wine. When she got home, she had a bottle (a large bottle) of White Zinfandel. Not exactly what I was looking for…but I still used it (just not as much as I would normally use).

The steak was delicious…and it made for a great steak sandwich for lunch today!

Ah, food and beer! Does it get any better?