I am sure you are aware of the Nooma videos by Bell. One of the videos called “Breathe” was a good one which somewhat touches on some of where I thought you might have been going with this. If you have not seen it I would recommend that, unless you are not into that sort of thing, then I would recommend staying the heck away from it!

Good stuff and looking forward to reflecting on this during the week.

Catch you next time.

BTW hows the healing of your medical stuff?

Jason

Yeah I know there are a ton of typos, and I stated that in the disclaimer at the very top that is was a draft, so I covered my bases there, heh. (aahhh got to love CYA)

Yeah I think sometimes I am a “!” whore heh. And a “heh” whore.

As far as the gender inclusive language for God, it is not a big deal at all. It is KY after all, heh. And while I try to be gender inclusive when I know if it bothers someone, all it really does is provide an opportunity to have a discussion over the issue and why people are so for or against it. I ultimately believe that God is genderless and colorless, and there is a reason why God never allows anyone to put “him” in a box, heh… but it is biblical in every way to refer to God as male, and biblical to do the same with female language but only with a metaphor (like/as). It is not a big deal to me, and for all those that it makes a big deal for I will try to respect them, but if someone is bitching to bitch, then I tend to be frustrated. The fact of the matter is if we all state up front that God is genderless, then when we use “he” or “she” we can get past it and get on to relationship with God and us. But yeah, I’m not a jerk to anyone, just want to have a relationships strong enough with someone that they can see past the issue to my heart and the heart of God.

Thanks!

Secondly, the PDF is a bit loaded with typos, which was not a big deal until I read that young people are attending UM churches and if that trend continues we will no longer have a church. It took me a second to realize there was a “not” missing. Not a big deal at all, you are golden on the audio.

Thirdly, thank you for more information about Th3 Waters for those of us outside Florence. I thought it was great for you to make Florence UMC aware of their “leading the way” status in the UMC. Stellar.

As a point of critique, is the community at Florence embedded with paternalistic language of God? What would it be for you as a preacher to step away from the dominance of male language to reference God? Is this an issue at Florence at all? It is a bit of an issue at the church I work at. God language is gender neutral for the most part and we are called out by others when we engender God.

Finally, I want to thank you for the sermon. Among the many gifts you have I think you are a dynamic speaker and have the ability to give people visions by talking with them. Keep up the visioning and know that if no other got anything from this, there is a guy in Texas who appreciated it very much.

Grace and Peace,
Jason