Power2Negotiate, Reed Sawyer

Monday, March 28, 2011

Am I trying to send a message, or am I looking for the laughs?

The associate pastor was doing "Sermon in a sack" extremely well, but he was also doing the morning sermon...so I offered to take over the kids sermon for a while, to make his life easier.

You don't know what "Sermon in a sack" is? Let me explain.

The kids come to the front of the sanctuary, and one of them brings a sack. "Nothing living, nothing dead, and your parents can't help you" are the only requirements. Then they hand you the sack. You have to do a mini sermon, (1 to 2 minutes long) based just on what is in the sack.

How hard is that?

You have to see the item, and determine what it is (which can be tricky), and then show it to the audience, and then do a funny little message that incorporates that item into a mini-sermon.

Now, a person that is trained in religious doctrine will first and foremost be thinking of the message. Me? I am thinking of the laughs.

Luke, a super cute 4 year old kid, once brought in a pen. Pastor B picked it up, and started talking about it, and about what you could do with a pen. Then he clicked it. It wasn't JUST a pen, it also gave out a shock that was enough to knock a man down. He screamed like a little girl.

Since then, he has been cautious about giving the pen to Luke again.

This last Sunday I gave the sack to a little girl. After church, Judy called me over and said, "Here's your sack". The little girl had decided not to do the sermon in a sack. I saw Luke walking by. I gave the sack to him.

Now, by all rights, I should have found another kid and spread the opportunity around, but I gave it to him because I knew that he would be comedic gold.

Am I going for the most relevant message? OR am I going for the laughs?

Thursday, January 6, 2011

The Persian threat

The Iranians are just about ready to become a nuclear power. In the past, the Russians and the Chinese had nuclear power, but they realized that if they attacked the United States, that we would attack them. They were, in a manner of speaking, rational.

The Iranians, on the other hand, have been involved in radical terrorist activities for the last 30 years. They have had their fingerprints on most terrorist plots and been the disturbance behind the scenes in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. They are not afraid of killing Americans, or for using woman and children as suicide bombers.

The solution, as always, is peace. Total peace...Carthagian peace.

We have tried the diplomatic solution. It has failed miserably. The only other action is to do what Rome did in Carthage.

For those of you that don't remember your classic history, Carthage was a terrorist state. They had ships on the Mediterranean, and they would, when they could, hijack a Roman ship and hold it for ransom. Finally, the Romans had enough.

They laid seige to the city. When they conquered it, they killed the men, sold the women into slavery, and salted the earth. (According to some historical accounts.)

We need to have a "pastoralization" of Iran. Let's return it to its natural, pre-industrial state. With a lowered population, lowered industrial state, and a beautiful, natural condition where animals and wildlife can take hold.

Let's not wait for the Iranians to kill others, let's return Iran to nature now.