The Wired Wanderings of a Postmodern Pilgrim
Feb 9th, 2008 by Tom Lyberg
Okay, I haven’t done much writing lately and mostly posted videos. However, I’m working on a seminar presentation called Diamond in the Rough: Being A Multifaceted Church in a Postmodern World and I was looking for a diamond cutting video and came across this. Really cute.
So, in honor of the eternal journey of love and valentines day, enjoy In the Rough.
Diamond In The Rough – Click here for the most popular videos
Jan 5th, 2008 by Tom Lyberg
My oldest son turned me onto this yesterday. Its just too good not to share. Its done by the Turtle Creek Chorale in Dallas, Texas – so there are some folks still keeping things weird in a good way down in Texas, if not in Austin.
Check out their web site site – not only do they have a sense of humor but they are an outstanding men’s chorus. Having been in a college men’s glee club, these guys are excellent. They are backed by women’s voices for this but they have several youtube concert clips of their serious music that are very good.
Jan 3rd, 2008 by Tom Lyberg
Since I am now looking for a new call (that is a new congregation to pastor), I’ve been looking around the country to see what other places might be open to an emergent guy like me. I always thought Austin, TX might be cool. After all, a city who’s unofficial motto is “keep Austin weird” seems like my kind of place.
Apparently not, according to this panel.
“The intellectual spirit?” I didn’t realize that was bad. Apparently it is for some people in Austin.
My thought? Keep Austin weird but not like this. This just gives Jesus followers a bad name.
Dec 29th, 2007 by Tom Lyberg
Here is the much awaited, end of the year, what’s been happening podcast. I wanted to get one more in before 2008 rolled around. Here’s a farewell to 2007 and a better 2008.
Click here to download podcast
Pastor Links
Surviving Hell – A great set of cds on how to survive stress and conflict by Dr. Matthew Anderson. He does a great deal of work with weight loss but this is for anyone going through tough times. This was a gift from a friend and very helpful – thanks, Andrea!
Healthy Congregations by Peter Steinke – Peter is a church consultant who has specialized in understanding and dealing with congregational conflict using family systems theory. There are additional books by Peter, all well worth reading.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Dec 27th, 2007 by Tom Lyberg
As many of you have noticed, Wired Jesus has been pretty quiet for almost two months. Simply put, the situation at the congregation I was pastoring here in Illinois became untenable and after conversations with my bishop and the congregation’s leaders, we agreed to end our relationship. So as of November 19, I have been “on leave from call”, which in our church lingo means I am not pastoring a church and looking for another job. I was given a severance package to tide things over.
So since October, I was trying to end well for the sake of the congregation, which has a hard road ahead of it, and begin a healing process for me and my family. There is actually a name for what has happened – “an unintentional interim” – which means you ended up being a transition pastor rather than a permanent pastor because of unresolved and unexpected issues in the congregation. Which is not to say I didn’t make my mistakes, but that there were other things that should have been dealt with before I arrived.
During the last few months, I had several listeners email me because of similar issues that they were dealing with as pastors in congregations. I’ll do a podcast this week and say more about what happened and some resources that have helped me.
However, I plan on using this time now to get Wired Jesus back on track. Conflict can just suck creativity and imagination right out of you and that is vital to not just being a healthy pastor but being a healthy person.
So, more later today or tomorrow. But thanks for the thoughts and emails and here’s to a happier new year.
tom
Oct 26th, 2007 by Tom Lyberg
I was sent this link from Leadership Journal about how Willow Creek did a self study on the effectiveness of their programs in building up spiritually mature people. The shocking result? Programs for every type of interest didn’t do much in growing people more like Jesus or buying into WWJD. The money built a special interest club.
The conclusion? What makes for spiritually mature Christians are healthy relationships with other Christians; frequent prayer and bible study; service to others; and a crazy little thing called love.
And you don’t need a multi-million dollar building to do it. In fact, it might even get in the way.
Whatever will we think of next?
Introduction:
• What would you do if you could set aside all the responsibilities that come with full time ministry?
• What is the one thing you would love to explore to grow as a pastor just for the sheer joy of it?
• If you could really create some “away time” for you and your spouse, would you do it?
We, as professional clergy, work on the Sabbath, and then peck away at our days off, and still work the other six days, because we are so intent and serious about serving God. Continuing education is driven by skills you need to develop or topics that small groups want to discuss and rarely do they include the Sundays rostered leaders are given every year for study. Time is divided among visits, committees, and appointments that are carefully managed in calendars and PDAs. In the midst of it all, a personal life with family and friends is wedged in and often has to vie for its own time slot.
Given enough time, the scent of the fresh breeze of the Spirit disappears, the natural creativity that springs from Sabbath dissipates, until healthy ministry and a healthy life gives way to the routine and mundane.
The 2008 Transformational Leaders Gathering, known for its unique style of peer-to-peer learning and interaction would like to invite you to let the creative chaos of the Spirit into your life for some serious Sabbath renewal. By intentionally offering a Sunday Continuing Education event, not only do you get to use one of those two Continuing Education Sundays rostered leaders are given every year, but it means you get a real Sunday Sabbath for a change. If you are a lay leader, a weekend event means less vacation time used for a continuing education event.
For more information, check out the dedicated web pages here on Wired Jesus or at TransformingChurch.com. As always, you can also email me at tom@wiredjesus.com.
Sep 29th, 2007 by Tom Lyberg
As I mention in the podcast, I am a big foodie and in this podcast I reflect on two of my favorite “food” shows – Feasting on Asphalt with Alton Brown and Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations. The thing that fascinates me about both shows and both hosts is that it is just ongoing evidence is that “postmodern” has more to do with perspective than age. These guys are as real as they get and in their search for regional/world food, what you really get is food for the soul that we have often forgotten in our McChurches.
Check out these sites
Alton Brown
Feasting On Asphalt 2
Great story on food, hospitality, and America
Anthony Bourdain
No Reservations
Great interview
Food For The Soul Online
Ginkworld
The Ooze
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Aug 28th, 2007 by Tom Lyberg
Here are the rest of the videos in the series I wrote about last week. Several of you were interested.
Aug 28th, 2007 by Tom Lyberg
Since my last post, its been just a little crazy. My oldest son had an emergency appendectomy, then the basement of our old house in Ohio (which is still for sale) flooded when the sump pump outlet failed, and then we had a series of storms here in Chicago. It seemed every week had its surprise crisis, to the point my youth director thought I should change my name to Job.
If you haven’t read the book out of the bible, Job is the victim of a bet between God and Satan. Satan says that if he bashes Job long enough, Job will reject God. God takes up the bet and before long, Job’s wife, sons, daughters, home, and health are all destroyed. He has these idiotic friend who sit with him, telling him that its all Job’s fault, he did something to tick off God and is being punished.
Job rejects their advice, that he hasn’t done anything wrong. While we have the old saying “Patient as Job”, Job is not patient. He spends his time telling his friends their wrong and asking God wtf. Finally God shows us, announces that he is going to test Job and if he can answer God’s questions, he will get an answer. Job apologizes for bothering the Almighty, that he can’t grasp all that is happening, and God ends up blessing him more than he ever was before.
You read Job and feel better for a bit. You don’t have it as bad as others, including Job, but its a little creepy to think of God playing a game with the devil and you are the pawn.
I’m feeling better and so’s my son. The basement isn’t so bad, even if Allstate doesn’t cover water damage under landlord insurance. No one was hurt and people to south in Findlay have it much worse. We had friends take care of the trashed carpet and I’ll have to go out soon but its not as bad as it could be.
I might even get a podcast in this week.
by the way, I did decide to re – name one of my fantasy football teams this year.
The Sons of Job.
Here’s to better times