Notes from the Trail

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Not that I have any hope of getting this for next Christmas, but it’s just so stinking cool… Read about it by clicking the image.

This is what happens with a camera and a family waiting on their order at Sonic on Christmas Eve eve.

I’m going to refrain from getting into the details of why I’m posting this, but you could probably surmise it from reading the entry here. It’s become more and more depressingly clear that in our small, rural south Arkansas town, political offices are to be had without much effort. For example, in our last election, only 1400 folks voted out of about 10,000 for mayor (and there were three people running); that’s 14%. Terrible. The incumbent was defeated for no good reason. The challengers in the race really had no good reason even to run.

I tried to interview the mayor-elect for MonticelloLive a while back, and he refused an interview (after initially telling me he would grant me one), saying that he was still “learning and growing.” Hmmm. He won the election in May, but as of October, he still had no ideas as to what his plans would be once he took office. How does one win election on a platform of complaints? Oh, sorry. We have only to look to our national politics to see duplication of results.

Anyway, Dilbert creator Scott Adams says it best in this cartoon:

Wade Burleson has stirred up the waters again in an excellent post seeking to defend a biblical view of baptism from encroachments upon it by leaders in the Southern Baptist Convention. SBC churches need to wake up and reign in or replace these leaders that are very near imposing a Landmark-ish set of inflexible and unbiblical rules and procedures upon the denomination and its churches.

It’s a stellar list, I’ll have to admit. However, how do you really measure influence? These churches are either huge or have been hyped. Most of them are strong churches. However, do you ever notice that it’s always churches in urban areas that our church growth-ers enjoy pointing to as “model” churches? Me, I think there is some dynamic ministry being done in rural areas by churches that refuse to succumb to “the way we were” and simply urge people toward “the way.” Of course, I’m not biased in the least. ;)