A Journey of Faith

March 19, 2013 / DBCC

A poem from our own Darla Bailey. A variation on it was used in this week's greeting.

  
        God, I have seen you hungry – 
But, Lord, I have never been without food;
   and yet, I have ached from within for the answers to the 
  questions that go unanswered, I have ached for serenity, 
  courage and wisdom.

      God, I have seen you thirsty –
But, Lord, I have never been without water;
    and yet, I have wanted to quench my yearning for rest
    and refreshing news of guaranteed peace for the future.

     God, I have seen you naked –
But, Lord, I have never been without clothes to cover my body;
    and yet, I have felt vulnerable and exposed.  I have wanted to wrap up 
    in a garment of comfort and compassion.

     God, I have seen you in prison –
But Lord, I have never spent even a day behind bars;
   and yet, I have yearned for freedom to express myself as
   I am.  To  be able to break from the shackles and demands and pressures.

     God, I have seen you as you have been
   hungry, thirsty, homeless and imprisoned.
And, yes, Lord, I have seen my own self – my own needs.  May I 
    see you as my fellow sojourner – traveling the journey of 
    faith along side me.

Darla A Bailey 3/1990

  

Sermon Podcast: The Foolish Traveler (Luke 10:25-31)

March 19, 2013 / DBCC

This past Sunday, we were blessed to have Diana Garland deliver our sermon. Came all the way from Waco, TX. She proceeded to blow our minds.

“Christianity is not about what we believe. The way to love God is to love those whom God loves.” —Overheard at @douglassblvdcc
— Ben Carter (@notbencarter) March 17, 2013

If you'd like to continue a conversation on this or any topics, comment on Facebook or @reply on Twitter.

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Diana Garland at DBCC

March 15, 2013 / DBCC

For those of you who don't come to our Sunday Morning Class with Derek, I have two things to say in no particular order:

B) Shame.

A) Dr. Diana Garland, Dean of the School of Social Work at Baylor University (yes, the one in Texas) is going to be presenting this Sunday!

But, hey, you know what? Even if you miss her at 9:30, you could still hear her. She'll also be filling the pulpit on Sunday morning. Check her out! you can click below for some more info on her.

"Jesus Is Not Coming Soon"

March 13, 2013 / DBCC / Source

“If we believe Jesus is going to make a special trip to strap jetpacks on us, we aren’t forced to care about our brothers and sisters (the heathen who are staying behind to be destroyed anyway), about the creation we’ve been given, about any of the tasks God assigns us through the prophets and through Jesus himself. If, for example, your primary interest in Israel, like that of Texas pastor John Hagee and his millions of followers, is how you can help promote your version of the End of Time through the Chosen, how can you truly be a Friend of Israel?”

— http://www.patheos.com//Progressive-Christian/Jesus-Coming-Soon-Greg-Garrett-03-11-2013

For so many reasons, this clip from Dr. Strangelove comes to mind when this topic is discussed.

Greg Garrett hits the nail on the head. And while rapture enthusiasts are easy targets, we are all pretty adept at finding excuses to put aside the Kingdom we're supposed to be laboring for.

That said, please don't feel bad about watching Slim Pickens ride a nuclear warhead to the ground. That's never a waste of time.

Sermon Podcast: Looking out the Window (Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32)

March 12, 2013 / DBCC

"There’s almost a competition, isn’t there? As if to say, “Ha! You think you were bad off; you should have seen me before I got saved. I did everything you did, and I kicked the dog! Obviously, there must be something big about God’s grace if God’d fool with a sorry ‘ol somebody like me.

"But, let me clue you in on a little secret: If you’re the type of person who generally goes to church on Sunday Mornings, while everybody else is out doing something more productive, chances are you’ve got more in common with the elder brother.

"Am I right?"

So, the question remains:

Would you go to the younger brother's Welcome-Home-from-Vegas We-Know-You-Wasted-the-Family-Fortune-But-Don't-Seem-To-Care Party?

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Send us your stuff!

March 07, 2013 / DBCC

Our website is like our front porch to the world. It is often the first thing folks see when they’re introduced to us online. We’ve been working tirelessly to cultivate our site to make an accurate representation of just how cool this place is.

All that said, we want the front porch decorations to be of the whole family, not just a few.We need you to send us stuff. Any stuff.

Shot a video clip at the Fairness Rally? Send it!

Took a picture at the Trunk r’ Treat? Send it!

Saw a funny video on YouTube? Send it!

Wrote a blog post on discipleship? Sustainability? BMWs & earthworms? SEND IT!

Snail mail, Email, carbon copy, dark room, sketch artist rendering, pony express, or drop by the office. Just get it here.

We’ll be the moderators. All you have to do is get it to us. We want to know what you’re thinking. We'd like to know what makes you laugh, what engages you intellectually, but most importantly, we want the world to hear our collective voice as a community of faith. No matter how zany it may be.

Let’s make our front porch light up the neighborhood.

To prove to you that we will literally post (almost) anything, here is a video of Bon Jovi and some goats.

Happy Thursday!

Not Minding My Own Business: Leviticus, Morality, and Not Killing Gay People

March 05, 2013 / DBCC

By Derek Penwell

This article originally appeared in The Huffington Post .

Minding my own business. That's all I was doing. A little catching up on social media, when I came across an articleabout a Colorado pastor, Kevin Swanson, who warned on his radio show that inside of ten years, gay people will likely be burning Christians at the stake—because, you know, that's how the gays do . . . at least since Nero.

What really caught my eye, though, was a quote from another person on the show, who suggested (wrongly) that people can be indoctrinated (though he doesn't say how) into a lifestyle (homosexual) for which the Bible demands "capital punishment."

Sermon Podcast: My Ways Are Not Your Ways (Isaiah 55:1-9)

March 04, 2013 / DBCC

“But then God unveils the guest list: “Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.”

Does … uh … somebody want to tell God that that sort of thing is frowned on in these parts? You start having parties with all those people, drinking ginger-ale punch and eating spanish peanuts, and pretty soon they start thinking that you approve of their lifestyle.”

Derek fills us in on what God wants us to do about all those free-loading sinner folk.

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But what if you don't have papers?

February 28, 2013 / DBCC / Source

“I couldn’t always understand my students’ banter, but I pretended and continued with false confidence into the realm of thesis statements and college acceptance, encouraging my students to believe that they could find success on the other side of an AP exam.

’But what if you don’t have papers?’ a boy named Cesar asked one day.

’Which papers?’ I asked, stupidly – my mind on essays and homework.

’You know, Miss, Papers.’”

— http://www.patheos.com/blogs/goodletters/2013/02/living-in-a-border-state/

We often talk about the plight of the millennial generation and its burden of educational and financial uncertainty. What we often fail to recognize is that these disadvantages are exponentially magnified for those who don't have "papers".

Sure, you can go to college.

Then what?

Les Misérables and the Church.

February 26, 2013 / DBCC / Source

In honor of the Oscars, a little musical theater parallel.

Interesting comparison of the Church and the character Javert of Les Mis from Douglass Anne Cartwright. The post comes from Phil Shepherd's site, Whiskey Preacher.

Phil and his wife, Stephanie, co-pastor a church they founded in Ft. Worth, TX called The Eucatastrophe. Pretty cool spot. Pretty cool folks.

Lobby Day Photos

February 25, 2013 / DBCC

Here are a couple of photos from the Rally for Fairness at the Capitol last Wednesday. If you have any you'd like to add, send them to us!

Sermon Podcast: How Much Is a Promise Worth? (Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18)

February 25, 2013 / DBCC

And more often than not, regardless of our intentions, we know, don’t we? Almost as soon as we say it, we know that we’ve just tossed one more empty commitment on the pile of broken promises. The heap grows bigger, and the sky grows dimmer.

I’ve never belonged to a church before @douglassblvdcc that talked about student loan debt from the pulpit.
— Ben Carter (@notbencarter) February 24, 2013

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Fairness Lobby Day in Frankfort!

February 19, 2013 / DBCC

The time is upon us, y'all!

Tomorrow the van is leaving at 7:45am from DBCC. We'll be getting there at around 9 to start training then out into the halls!

If you're considering coming, we'd really love to have you tag along. We have a lot of space in the van and will be returning in sometime in the mid-afternoon.

See you bright and early!

P.s. For more info, check out the Facebook event.

DBCC 2012: A Year in Pictures

February 19, 2013 / DBCC

Uploaded by douglassblvd on 2013-02-19.

Thanks for a wonderful year, folks.

VOA Emergency Shelter Tour

February 18, 2013 / DBCC

Tuesday, February 19th at 6:00pm, we'll be taking a van to the Family Emergency Shelter run by the Volunteers of America. Shane Fitzgerald has graciously taken the lead on getting a group tour of the facility and we'd like to have a good group go. If you're interested, c'mon out tomorrow night!

Sermon Podcast: Mary Ann Lewis (August '11)

February 18, 2013 / DBCC

This week we're spotlighting another one of our members, Rev. Mary Ann Lewis.

Check her out in her sermon from August 2011.

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Lent and Pancakes

February 14, 2013 / Geoff Wallace

Obviously, Lent is a time that is set aside for Christains to focus on our spiritual lives with prayer and fasting. However, the fasting of things that separate us from God often is equal to vices in our lives of which we are trying to rid ourselves of anyway.

So, in fact, Lent often becomes everyone's last ditch effort at a New Years Resolution until Jan. 1 rolls back around. Now, I'm not saying that reneging on your Lenten fast for the Creator is going to land you in eternal Hellfire (or am I?). But if you've had trouble ridding yourself of bad habits or vices, maybe you've just been going about it from the wrong angle.

Maybe you're just not making enough pancakes.

“Regarding “The First Pancake Problem”
Anyone who’s ever made America’s favorite round and flat breakfast food is familiar with the phenomenon of The First Pancake.
No matter how good a cook you are, and no matter how hard you try, the first pancake of the batch always sucks.
It comes out burnt or undercooked or weirdly shaped or just oddly inedible and aesthetically displeasing. Just ask your kids.
At least compared to your normal pancake—and definitely compared to the far superior second and subsequent pancakes that make the cut and get promoted to the pile destined for the breakfast table—the first one’s always a disaster.
I’ll leave it to the physicists and foodies in the gallery to develop a unified field theory on exactly why our pancake problem crops up with such unerring dependability. But I will share an orthogonal theory: you will be a way happier and more successful cook if you just accept that your first pancake is and always will be a universally flukey mess.
But, that shouldn’t mean you never make another pancake.”

— http://www.43folders.com/2011/01/07/first-pancake

I love Merlin Mann. And while he isn't a Master of Lent-ology, he does have a way of understanding how screwed up we can be when we're trying to fix how screwed up we are.

So, read his article, and, you know, if you really want it to say "Lent" somewhere, this one.

Hint: One is way more entertaining.

And then, read this one if you don't believe Pancakes and Lent are related.