The McKinney Diner
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Mind Vitamin"Many of us, though, face a new poverty. We are no living on the streets, but we're stuck in a rut. We are in danger of gaining the while world and losing our souls. What we have received from God has taken preeminence over the God who has received us. His gifts are for us to enjoy, but not for us to worship. If what He has given us now stands between us, we must again lay it at His feet. No matter how rich we become, we must always remain poor. We must ensure that while we celebrate the goodness of God, we do not neglect the purposes of God."--Erwin Raphael McManus, in Chasing Daylight
Brent - 6:02 AM
Saturday, July 11, 2009
iTunes & Amazon, It Would Behoove You To Be A Bit More Vigilant...I don't care about all the mining of information iTunes and Amazon has done on me. I buy stuff on their sites. I look at stuff I might buy on their sites. I've checked boxes saying I already own something they recommended. In turn, they make recommendations of other stuff on their sites that I might want to buy. It's understood by all of us that this is how it works.
Now, I've purchased every single Son Volt CD...the last two were from iTunes, the first two from Amazon.
So, imagine my surprise when the new CD I thought was coming out later this month was being discussed by some guys on the radio yesterday. They mentioned it came out last Tuesday.
So, I checked the iTunes Store "Genius Just For You" section only to find "Better than Ezra" and "Audioslave" and "Enigma" all posted for me to purchase. I mean, with my taste in music I never scan the "New and Noteworthy" section. That's all Hannah Montana and Michael Jackson and Mariah Carey and Party Rock compilations.
I mean, all that information you mined of my 66 songs on 5 CD's and 3.8 hours of Son Volt music taking up 265.6 megabytes of hard drive space and somehow your very own store failed to even recommend something I'd for sure purchase!
However, all was forgiven when I noticed that an obscure little band...no, wait, one of MY all-time favorite bands that happens to toil in obscurity, was highlighted in the "New and Noteworthy" section.
Sweet.
Amazon, you however, have no excuses...two purchases as well as all those boxes checked "I own it?" Come on. At least recommend it, man. If you're gonna mine my information, let's at least let it function on the MOST OBVIOUS ones.
Uncool, Amazon. Uncool.
Brent - 6:01 AM
Friday, July 10, 2009
FloMo PrimerIn case you missed it yesterday (and, likely, you did. Unless you happen to read Forbes magazine on-line. Which I don't. But apparently
Retrophisch does and alerted the local masses), our beloved Flower Mound has been named the
#6 Best Place To Move in the United States.
That's right.
We thumped burgeoning Frisco (#7), and I'm guessing it's because we don't have to pay the toll on 121 every single time we go in and out of our community.
We spanked Carrollton (#12), which is no real surprise because their only claim to fame is that they are the first city north of 635 and pretty much dominate when it comes to access to DART's public transportation. I'm not sure what else they've got going because the only time I ever go there is actually when I'm going
through there to get to downtown.
Plano (#25) rounded out the list. We all know that Plano has had all sorts of issues with the heroin thing, the steroids thing, and the cheerleader thing. Even the magazine hinted that Plano is no longer hip/with-it as now it's a place that has no land for new stuff and the old-folks like to retire there, but not for young families.
And, yes, we'll have to keep an eye out for the up-and-comers the magazine listed. Corinth is kind of cool but you gotta cross the bridge over Lake Lewisville, which is a hassle. Southlake is kinda happenin' but for those that don't live there it seems to have that
Desperate Housewives thing going on--you know, where everything looks fine on the outside but something's lurking around underneath the surface. Coppell is nice, too, but it seems hard for locals to pinpoint exactly where it is on a map.
And, so, for those that might read the magazine (which cracks me up because if you click on the link, it's going to show you a photo of the actual "Flower Mound" which has been spruced up and protected even though it's surrounded by retail. Nobody goes there except for the community sunrise service on Easter or to show folks that there actually is a flower mound, but you just drive by and point) and want to move here and get all excited about it...well, you should. It's a nice place with nice people for the most part. Good churches. Good schools. The cops don't have much to do except hassle the teenagers driving 10 m.p.h. over the speed limit or bust teenagers for curfew violations or loitering. If you're asking me, well, there's a reason that magazine has us #6. It is a nice place.
But there are a few things lurking in our own little burg that you might want to know about before you purchase the land:
Those orange barrels. Yeah. They're temporary. And, by temporary, I mean two or three more years. See, there's a lot of construction going on because we have to get those 66,000 people into the Shops at Highland Village much more quickly than we used to because there weren't any Shops at Highland Village. But Highland Village put shops there before the infrastructure was ready and gets all the tax dollars and we have to get there. So, right now there's a lot of construction. We absolutely cannot be bothered to drive all the way to Lewisville for our Wal-Mart, Old Navy or Barnes & Noble and we're absolutely NOT going all the way to Grapevine Mills for our movie theatre. Our city council decided long ago we don't want the tax revenue but we do want to spend tax dollars fixing the roads so we can get to the other cities getting the tax revenue. When you ask why this is, you'll hear the words, "Master Plan." Don't ask. Nobody really knows.
We let Lifetime Fitness and The Shops at Highland Village babysit teenagers during the day and weekend evenings. Apparently, you can just drop the kids off there and let them run amok. It's okay. We have the cops on full-time teen alert so they don't get out of control...so, no worries there.
If somebody tells you that it's near a strip mall that has a grocery store on one corner, with a Starbucks/Blockbuster in front of that, with a bank on the other corner near some fast-food joints...well...that's every corner.
Over time, you will master the airport run. You will make deposits into the airport drop-off/pick-up account and then make withdrawals. They do balance out. You'll learn to check web sites for terminal letters, gate numbers and baggage claim carrells. You'll also be able to plan times if your pick-up checked luggage or didn't. It's an art form. All our residents are very good at this game.
If you hear the coach/director/advisor say that your child's activity is "voluntary," you'll need to fudge the definition of "voluntary." Oh, yeah. I forgot. Like Lake Wobegon, all our children are above average. WAY above average. They're all actually in the Top 10% of their class. Not even kidding. Don't believe me? Check all the minivan bumper stickers.
This is more Texan than specific to our community, but you'll want to familiarize yourself with both Sonic Drive-Ins and Dr. Pepper products. Both are crucial to our community.
You might wonder why Flower Mound is building our second 10,000 seat football stadium. You won't wonder once you live here for one football Friday night. It'll become obvious...and, truth be told, they'll both kinda galvanize our town.
You'll have to make an effort to meet your neighbors. The architecture here is big on privacy fences and drive-in garages. There aren't any front porches or chain-link fences that allow for spontaneous conversation and such. You have to spot the neighbor going to get the mail or walking their dog. Which is fine. Just gotta stay alert. We do have a version of front-porch, where parents take collapsable chairs to outdoor sports practices and sit and watch and gripe about the coach and why their above average--check that, WAY above average--kid isn't getting enough playing time.
Our town lists 20 churches available in various denominations. If you have trouble finding one on the list that you like, drive by any public school on Saturday afternoon and there will be signs for a new start-up church meeting in most of their lunchrooms/auditoriums.
We have great parks for kids to play in. You'll drive by them while you're house hunting. What your realtor won't tell you is that they can't be used unless it's during the school year. The rest of the time when kids are out of school it's too hot.
One last piece of advice from me before I open it up to the patronage: Toe the line with your HOA. If you don't know what that is, you will.
So, if you're moving here because you read the article, that's a few things the article didn't tell you. What else do you FlowerPlexers have for the influx of new neighbors we'll be getting?
Brent - 7:45 AM
Monday, July 06, 2009
The Pendulum Continues To Swing BackIt's been a continual drumbeat here at The Diner: The helicopter parents. Those hyper-achieving (re: resume filling, not necessarily enjoying the ride) teenagers all after scholarships and top-10 and championships. And, lately, I've been seeing books and articles that are starting to point out the downfalls of this type of lifestyle.
And, browsing through the extra-special Sunday-only miracle that is
The New York Times delivered each Sunday to my driveway encouraged me a bit that some degree of sanity is returning to parenting.
First, in the sports section, in response to whether or not the U.S. men's soccer team's run in the Confederations Cup was a defining moment in U.S. soccer, there was an opinion that read, "But until our children's first choice for fun is to play soccer unshod in the streets simultaneously toughening their feet and softening their ball touch, with no structure imposed by grown-ups, we are years behind the competition." Did you catch that? Unstructured soccer PLAY, like those who learn the game in the rest of the world in streets and fields as children, develops great soccer PLAYERS. Not travel teams with great uniforms who play on manicured fields with adults trying to teach them strategies and such. Just kids actually playing and learning all by themselves...kind of like when we played pick-up basketball, football or baseball because we had time to.
Then, an article entitled
"Say Hello to Underachieving" had a few quotes that might show that things are slowly but surely changing:
First, on the reality that coveted, high-paying summer jobs and internships are dwindling in the current economy: "They were always given trophies for just showing up. Now they're being told 'no' when they really want a job or internship." The idea is that they're losing a sense of entitlement their parents gave them through all the years of constant stroking and praising. Now, they're not getting everything they want, and they're struggling.
Second, from later in the article:
"In the short term, the lost summer of 2009 might actually be a blessing, some psychologists said, especially because members of this generation have lived their lives like track stars trying to run a marathon at the pace of a 100-meter dash — their parents typically waiting at every turn with a stopwatch.
'Parents have really put a lot of pressure on the kids — everything has been organized, they’re all taking A.P. courses, then summer hits and they’re going to learning camps,' said Peter A. Spevak, a psychologist in Rockville, Md. Now, he said, with opportunities for achievement at a minimum this summer, 'there is something to be said about sitting out on a warm evening and looking at the stars — they need more of this contemplation and self-evaluation.'
Is it me, or does it look like we're at the beginning of coming to our collective senses?
Brent - 5:28 AM
Sunday, July 05, 2009
Mind VitaminJesus hates suffering, injustice, evil and death so much, he came and experienced it to defeat it and, someday, to wipe the world clean of it. Knowing all this, Christians cannot be passive about hunger, sickness and injustice. Karl Marx and others have charged that religion is 'the opiate of the masses.' That is, it is a sedative that makes people passive toward injustice, because there will be 'pie in the sky bye and bye.' That may be true of some religions that teach people that this material world is unimportant or illusory. Christianity, however, teaches that God hates the suffering and oppression of this material world so much, he was willing to get involved in it and to fight against it. Properly understood, Christianity is by no means the opiate of the people. It is more like the smelling salts."--Timothy Keller, in The Prodigal God.
(emphasis mine)
Brent - 7:05 AM
Saturday, July 04, 2009
A Thing Of Beauty"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."--From 1776's Declaration of Independence
"The emigrants who fixed themselves on the shores of America in the beginning of the seventeenth century severed the democratic principle from all the principles which repressed it in the old communities of Europe, and transplanted it unalloyed to the New World. It has there been allowed to spread in perfect freedom, and to put forth its consequences in the laws by influencing the manners of the country."--Alexis de Tocqueville, in 1835's
Democracy in America.
I don't know about you, but I'm pretty thankful that the emigrants that fixed themselves on the shores of America in the beginning of the seventeenth century severed the democratic principle from all the principles that repressed it and transplanted it unalloyed in the New World, and allowed it to spread forth in perfect freedom...
...and put forth whatever the consequences may have been, are, and will be.
Happy Independence Day, patrons! Now get out there and pursue some Happiness!
Brent - 7:09 AM
Friday, July 03, 2009
More Thoughts On The Generation GapIn my July 1 entry, I mentioned a news article that tells us that the generation gap is wider than at any point in American history...including 1969, when that gap was exposed by the rapid-fire cultural changes during those days. While I think about pop culture a lot, I'm really more concerned with how that generation gap affects my job as a pastor at a church. I mentioned that because I'm in youth ministry I spend a lot of time with members of the (let's say, 3. Maybe 4.) generations represented in our church.
So, one random thought about the effects of the gap as it relates to my church:
I don't think we'll see any sort of increase in protests or mass gatherings to highlight issues or be the spark for change. From my vantage point, the young people in the '60's believed--really, truly
believed--they were in a position to right the wrongs of the big picture of society. Race relations. Wars. Government policy. There were organized protests and marches and the like to create public awareness and highlight the issues and attempt to spur change in the various areas of society. Well, a couple of differences in this group of teenagers as I work with them every day lead me to believe you won't see cultural upheaval from this bunch. First of all, they don't think in terms of
changing the world but rather in terms of
doing whatever I can--big or small, but mostly small--to make my little corner of the world better. Their parents duly noted that all those protests really didn't revolutionize society much so now the kids we raised think more in terms of making one family's life a little better, or our group's ability to make 15 families Christmas a little better or that homeless organization's day a little better. They don't view societal change as much of a possibility.
The second reason they don't protest much is because their institutions (think public schools) are regimented and structured in such a way that any type of deviation or protest will result in discipline that in some way harshly punishes the individuals involved--including expulsion.
Finally, they've been trained by their parents to be good-busy so you can achieve achieve achieve. It's hard to organize a protest when you know you'll be kicked out of school or off the team which will crush your resume thereby killing your chance to get into a good college. It's also hard to truly serve an organization passionately when most of their opportunities to make their corner of the world a better place are
mandated by school leadership in the form of
required service hours. Lastly, when you're in school from 8:45am to 4:10pm, followed by 3 hours of band practice, Bible study and homework that can last a couple of hours, throwing in that grass-roots Tea Party Rally Against Taxes is the throwaway of all your options.
If this is true, what's the response by youth pastors/pastors? What I'm learning is that we need to cut back on the methods of youth ministry that are programmatic and/or entertainment based to bring in kids. I've discovered that most Christian kids are pretty much church-hopping with each other anyway on that stuff (in other words, if your youth group is going to the Big Area Water Park this week, I'll go, too, with my friends from that youth group. Next week, when my youth group has a movie night with pizza, all my friends will come with me to that.--The same things happens with parents enrolling their children in 6 different Vacation Bible Schools in the area. We're really not reaching out to the community all that much, simply providing a quality program for Christian parents. This ain't all bad, but let's see if for what it is. I mean, families that left our church years ago enrolled their kids in VBS and it was nice to visit and get caught up, but they're happy at their current church.)
What we need to be doing is finding service projects and mission trips that allow students to serve because they love Christ and the people that He loves. Usually, this doesn't have many, if any, tangible benefits to the individuals going. This is why I really liked our church's recent mission trip to Mississippi. We partnered with a government agency, and every now and then we'd serve truly needy folks. But some days, you'd wind up working for a system manipulator getting their deck washed and stained with your tax dollars. They learned from that, got frustrated by that, served through that, etc. Sure, the kids had fun relaxing together each night and certainly had a lot of laughs and bonding time, etc. But most of the trip was very hard work in extreme conditions, which isn't what you really hear about. Kind of like stories from when we were in college. The fraternity stories get a lot of play and are entertaining and nobody wants to hear about the 30 hours of work you put into writing that paper.
How does this affect the older generation? Programming is dead. What "worked" for us that came through the Golden Age of Youth Ministry has come of age in the church at-large as we move into leadership positions in churches. We grew up in a world where you could put the Super Bowl on a big screen (well, what passed for big back then, anyway) and give out pizza and tell everybody, "Invite your friends to our Super Bowl watching party here at the church!" And we would. We'd have teaching times with cool lighting and maybe even a smoke machine and use video clips from movies on the big screen to highlight the lesson...and now many church services look just like old youth group meetings from the mid-1980's. Coffee shops in church buildings popped up. Having concerts to "bring your friends" under the guise of "outreach" is dead. Officially. You didn't hear it first here, but you heard it reiterated here. Giving away an Xbox 360 to whoever brings the most friends on "pack the pew" Sunday is long-gone. Nobody brings friends to church because there is a coffee cafe available.
In other words, the church needs to get back to loving the people that Christ loves in a genuine manner. Not viewing them as evangelistic "targets" to seek and "save," but love people anyway expecting nothing in return. Simply be salt and light in areas where we're already place (on teams, in jobs, with families, etc.) and love people. If you love people, you'll see needs. If you see needs of people you love, you'll find creative and innovative and meaningful ways to serve.
And, if you're asking me, that works in concentric circles of influence. We need to serve and love those in our community. Sure, you can haul off to Africa or Haiti or Mississippi, too...and we should. But this generation thinks in smaller terms with more limited time-frames. With a more limited schedule to serve people and families, we should be using those times not to get together and entertain ourselves, but rather be finding ways to serve and love and make various little corners of the world a little bit more reflective of Christ's love.
So, patrons, your thoughts?
Next entry on this topic: The role of Scripture/classes/worship services in developing that love & service attitude...as it plays out in how the previous generation gleans information and this one does.
Brent - 7:10 AM
