New Frontiers in Communication

Imagine a church where the pastor can keep up with the daily lives of his or her people without ever leaving their desk or talking on the phone. Where a sick church member can hear the sermon from the last service without the time and expense of cutting and delivering a tape or CD for them. Where the pastor can send a birthday greeting or note of encouragement to someone without using a postage stamp or having a three day lag in delivery. Where a person searching for a church can find information on service times and ministries before ever walking through your door, and you can make an announcement to the entire church or to the prayer chain by sending out a single message! Sound like science fiction? It was until a few years ago.

Talk to any preacher and they will tell you that their primary job is communication. Our job is simply to communicate the Gospel of Jesus Christ in such a manner that the hearer can understand and assimilate the message, which will then be used by the Holy Spirit to change that person’s life through repentance and acceptance of Jesus as their personal Savior. Other jobs within the church also involve communication. Teaching a Sunday School class, one-on-one discipleship, running a board meeting, facilitating communication in counseling, writing copy for ads or newsletters. The pastor is a communicator.

Seeing all the emphasis on communication within the church and specifically within the job description of the pastor, we have to ask ourselves “how can we best communicate to our audience”? The first thing we need to recognize is that our audience is changing. Along with that change comes a shift in the methods of communication our audience prefers. We are accustomed to communicating with our people through the sermon, through the printed word and face-to-face or by phone. But now we can add to the mix several other methods. Television and radio are two familiar technological tools. But how about a church web site, texting, IM services, eGreeting cards, Facebook and other social networking sites, streaming audio and video, church ‘listserv’, YouTube and the classic podcast? It is the rare church that makes full use of even a few of these methods. The irony is that our people, and the people we so desperately want to reach, use these communications media daily.

The church has an unfortunately well-deserved reputation for being ten years behind everyone else on technology issues. We may not be able to affect the whole church, but we can affect the place we serve. We can use the gifts God has given us to reach people through these means.

Here are a few tips:

1. If you don’t know what one of those terms used above means, do a search on the web and find out!
2. You don’t have to use all of these communication techniques, but picking and using two or three should be enough to get you started.
3. It is not necessary to be fancy, spend lots of money or be flashy, just informative and professional. Many of these are actually free or included with other services you already use. A big bang for your budget buck!
4. If you want to get started but don’t know how…find a responsible teenager and ask them to help. They'll be thrilled!
5. Involve various people in your church in administering these ministries…it helps to assimilate people and relieves pressure on you. Do NOT relinquish final authority on any of these media, however.
6. Realize that there is likely to be inertia in your church and on your board.

You can take one of several approaches. The first is to wait on initiating anything until you get approval. The best way is to talk it up until they think it was their idea in the first place. The second way is to simply go ahead and get something simple started and wait until people notice. Or third, you can do nothing and find yourself increasingly handicapped.

When I started the Facebook account for my own church I wasn’t sure of the reaction I was going to get. Within a week I had 8 people listed as members of the group. Not bad, considering we are a small church running in the 20’s. I also noticed another interesting thing…fully 75% of those people were under 30 and most were under 25. This is the demographic our church needs to reach, and I bet your church does too. Now, realize that each of those individuals have literally scores of Facebook ‘Friends’ who therefore can access your group and find out about your church.

There are many new means of communication out there, and one author has suggested that this is just the beginning. So, if you want to be a pastor and lead a church, then please do lead the way and take the good news of the Gospel to new frontiers!

Happy Podcasting!

.

Bivo-traps

This posting may come as a surprise to many who have known me over the years, in my career as a minister and as a churchplanter, but it concerns a topic that is at the forefront of ministry today.

In the last thirty years or so there has been an increase in the number of bivocational ministers in many, if not all, faith traditions and the Church of the Nazarene is no different. “Bivocational” is defined as follows: An assigned minister holding one or more secular, non-church-related jobs. I have been a champion of the bivocational minister for many years…at one time I was “quad-vocational”, holding down three secular positions totaling about 70 hours a week in addition to my ministry position.

Many times, but not always, a minister is bivocational because the church is too small to fully fund the minister’s salary and benefits. In other cases a church may have gotten into this mode of dealing with their pastors because they see it as being good stewardship, or simply started out this way and now have grown, but don’t want to devote additional funds to a pastor’s salary and benefits. At the time of this writing a family health insurance policy will be about $1,200 a month in Vermont. The number of pastors in this situation does not take into account the number of pastors who are not fully-funded, but who have a working spouse who provides additional salary and benefits. Many newer churches do not provide a parsonage, either, which increases the burden on the pastor.

Granted, there are many pastors who see this as a preferred mode of ministry, giving the pastor unprecedented independence and access to the world of secular work. You can't intimidate a bivo pastor with threats on his paycheck by withdrawing your tithes!

Data quoted by Richard Houseal from the 1993 Annual Reports indicates that at that time there 39% of Nazarene churches reporting 50 or less in average worship attendance and paying salaries below the poverty level. (source: http://www.nazarene.org/files/docs/Picture%20of%20Bivocational%20Pastors%20in%20the%20Church%20of%20the%20Nazarene.pdf) In another report by Ken Crow a survey of the churches in the US revealed that 29% of pastors are either part-time or have other employment outside the church. (source: http://www.nazarene.org/files/docs/factnazarenereport_2005.pdf)

The numbers speak for themselves. What doesn’t appear in the statistics though are the difficulties that being a bivocational pastor present. Our own District is struggling with a number of these issues. For instance, consider the following.

• Denominational or District events and programs scheduled during the work week will not be well attended by bivos.
• Secular work time is prime ministry time (for instance, afterschool programs, Mom’s Bible Studies, etc..)
• Secular work allows limited time off; required ministry events during the year may leave no vacation time for the pastor’s family.
• Secular work and ministry may take up so much time in combination that family life could suffer.
• Secular work schedules may interfere with essential ministry time…for instance, retail work may insist on occasional holiday or weekend work.
• Denominational and District board seats are often not offered to bivocationals because of their real or perceived schedules and many meetings are scheduled during weekday working hours.
• Breaking away from bivocational ministry and into fully-funded ministry can be an economic leap for a church.
• And the final straw for many is that even though the church as a whole has bought into the bivocational model, there are still residual feelings that bivocational ministers are not ‘real’ clergy (by both laity and fully-funded clergy).

To quote Dennis Bickers, "Along with our family and church responsibilities, we have a second job that requires a certain amount of our time. The churches we lead are often smaller churches with few resources. Bivocational ministry is looked at by some as 'second-class' ministry performed by people who don't have the gifts to serve a larger church." (source: http://www.nph.com/nphweb/html/h2ol/articleDisplay.jsp?mediaId=2365220)

Whether or not the church manages to deal effectively with these issues in relation to bivocationals will largely determine the shape of the church in the future. I am now firmly of the opinion that a local church should have at least one fully-funded pastoral position and the bivocational mode should be employed only out of necessity and transitioned into fully-funded as quickly as possible.

Solutions are available, we just need to be creative. In the past, and in some congregations even now (especially ethnic congregations), pastoral sharing is done with a fully-funded pastor handling two or more small congregations. This is only one solution, but at the very least we need to be aware of the special needs, limitations and schedules of our bivocational ministers.

A Life of Significance

There are times in life when you look back and wonder what the significance of it all was, or what you are doing now that will be significant in the future. Then the thought comes, what is ‘significance’? After all, what is ‘significant’ to one person may not be to another person. I have faced this crisis in my own life and have recognized the paradox in it.

We all face choices in our lives. Some of those choices lead to actions that affect a large group of people, while others lead to actions that affect only a small group. Some lead to accolades and others to no public recognition at all. The name of Mordecai Ham probably doesn’t mean much to you, but you have likely been affected in some measure by the work he did. Mordecai Ham was an evangelist and speaker who led a series of meetings in Charlotte, NC in 1934 at the invitation of the Charlotte Businessman’s Club. At one of those meetings a young man was touched by God and was saved. His name was Billy Graham. (source: http://www.wheaton.edu/bgc/archives/faq/13.htm) You may never hear the name of Mordecai Ham mentioned in any other context. Was he significant? To Billy Graham he was. And through Billy Graham his significance was multiplied many times over. God uses even those who are small in the eyes of the world to bring glory to Himself.

If God is calling you to a position with significance in the eyes of many such as a pastor, a denominational office, a political career, or some other such role, then do not shrink from it. Accept His calling and do it as to the Lord, not to men. Be accountable to Him. If He is calling you to a less visible role, then also do it as to the Lord, not to men. If He is calling you to be a good parent, then take joy in your children. If a teacher, then find your joy in the young lives you mold. If He is calling you to be a loving spouse, then take joy in your mate.

Most importantly, be the hands, feet, face and voice of Christ to others and your significance will be complete.

Reality Intrudes

I was on the way to work this morning and listening to the radio. I generally like to listen to a syndicated station playing soft Christian rock named KLOVE (http://www.klove.com). I was listening to a song that said how much God cares about us and a thought occurred to me. This is a head-turner, so beware. God cares about us, but He doesn’t care what we think about Him. Now for the caveat; it matters a great deal to our eternal future what we believe, but the reality is, except for this little consequence of belief, it doesn’t matter what we believe. Now for the explanation.

We have a tendency in this world to act as though our belief somehow influences reality. You’ve seen the books and tapes, “Think and grow rich” and such. The belief behind it is that attitude can change the real world. Thought influences reality. Envisioning something or imagining something makes it real. Folks, God just don’t work that way! We can think anything we want about the nature of God. "God is female”, “God doesn’t exist”, “God is an impersonal force”, “We are all gods”; there are hundreds, if not thousands of views of God. Reality, though, says that no matter how much we may believe what we imagine, it is all still in our heads. Saying that God is dead doesn’t mean He is. Saying God is female won’t make Him so (for the record, He is neither male nor female, He is spirit). God is what He is. And frankly He is unknowable except for what He reveals to us.

The point here is that you are betting everything you are, and everything you ever will be on what you perceive God to be. No matter what you envision Him to be, the reality of who and what He is will not change. Now, this is not what we want to hear. Modern society says you can have your cake and eat it too. No one is wrong, it is all relative. But even classical philosophy has a rule of logic that says that something cannot both be and not be true at the same point in time and space. This is a rule of exclusivity. We want to seem tolerant, being exclusive is not chic. I may disagree with their theology, but the Muslims have one thing right. Their concept of God as Allah cannot co-exist with the Christian God of the Bible, or the Jewish conception of Yahweh. Likewise, the Christian God cannot be the God of the Book of Mormon. The God of the Mormons cannot be Buddha. Buddha is not compatible with neo-paganism.

So, how sure are you that your concept of God is correct? You cannot have your cake and eat it too. Reality will intrude on your dreamscape. For in the end we will know for a certainty. The Bible says that when we die, “that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth” (Phil 2:10 NIV) Not just Christians, but everyone will know the truth. It is obvious to anyone reading this where I stand on this issue…but if I were wrong, then I would still have to stand before whoever God is and confess that I lived my life in vain. There will be a lot of people in that position, and I don’t want to be there, especially just by being sloppy in my thinking.

So, God doesn’t care what you think about Him. He is not going to change just to suit you. Who do you say He is?

Ride-Along

My son is a Criminal Justice major and when he returned home from college this last summer he had a chance to do a ‘ride-along’ in our local police department. He chose to ride on the late shift since that is where most of the action takes place. As he was heading down Rt 7 with the officer in a patrol car, the officer kept an eye on the radar display to see how fast the surrounding traffic was moving. As he approached one vehicle in the opposite lane, the display indicated that the driver was slowing down. As he passed the vehicle, the officer said, “Watch this”, and flipped a switch on the display. The display changed and went from indicating that there was no vehicle ahead in the opposite lane to displaying the now increasing speed of the car they had just passed. “He thinks since we passed him that I can’t see him, but there is a radar cone mounted in the rear of this patrol car, too!”

How often do we think that we need to behave ourselves when we think God is watching, but once we get out of His sight that we can go back to our old ways? Our actions day that as long as we don’t drink alcohol, smoke, swear, gamble, fornicate or do something else sinful while we are in church, we can go back to doing those things on Monday morning. We think God can’t see us because we are not in church. The fact is that this is hypocrisy. “Hypocrite” is a word finding its root in the Greek language and basically means “an actor”, someone who puts on a face for a time and pretends to be something he or she is not.

The real joke behind all of this is that the only person we are fooling is ourselves. Our families know what we are doing, our friends know, probably the people at church know, and God most certainly is not fooled. His sight does not end at the church door. Portraying God as a cosmic policeman just waiting for us to mess up so He can catch us is not a good image really. He loves us, and has paid the ultimate price to rescue us from that very sin that we keep committing when we think he is not watching. So, if He already knows what you are doing and has paid the price so we don’t have to, why not give it all back to Him and accept what He is offering? That is true honesty, and what He has been looking for all along.

Through A Glass Darkly

Things are never as simple as they seem. Murphy was truly an optimist. The world around us seems bright and clear, but that is a deception. And it is a deception because we live in a world that is dominated by a spiritual dimension that we cannot see. Our emotions, our minds, our actions are all influenced to one degree or another by this spiritual dimension. There are forces at work that seek to trip us up and keep us from connecting with God, and there are forces that are just as determined to make sure we have the chance to talk with Him.

At this time of year, approaching Halloween, I find it funny (in the sense of ‘strange’) that people love to watch horror movies that routinely deal with evil, demons, monsters and the like. A high level of credence is given to them. People at their basest level seem to believe in the existence of palpable evil. Yet they seem to have trouble believing that there is a God, that He is good and that He is powerful. Why is that?

Paul said, “For now we see through a glass, darkly” (1 Cor 13:12). The realities of this dual world are largely hidden from us, but we are told enough about it to know that it is fraught with danger. We are under constant spiritual attack. If you don’t feel the heat of battle, that is the time to be worried, because the evil forces (yes, Satan is real!) have you exactly where they want you and feel no need to disturb you. You are no threat. The good news is that the war has already been won by Christ on the cross, and that we have been given the resources to win the battle we are engaged in.

Maybe this is a good time of year for us to proclaim our message of the Gospel. Rather than retreat into our cocoon, we need to let people know that yes, there is true evil, but there is also a God in heaven who fights for us.

Like Lemmings Off A Cliff

There are many things about being a minister that are not apparent at first blush. The amount of work that is required is one thing. Another is the amount of emotional energy (and sometimes physical energy) that it takes. Hazards include the likelihood of embarrassment while speaking in front of crowds. And caution is needed in dealing with people because of the possibility of lawsuits for giving bad advice or simply being in the in ’wrong place at the right time’ and having people jump to conclusions. Another hazard is saying the wrong thing during an election season and potentially losing the church’s tax-exempt status. Well, it is election season, and I will refrain from making any rash statements either from the pulpit or from this forum that would be construed as supporting a particular candidate or party.

However, one of my previous posts dealt with the subject of the right and duty of a citizen to vote. Maybe it is just me as I get older but I am noticing more things this election season that have managed to make e upset than in any previous election. For instance, does anyone know the name of the Libertarian Party candidate? Green Party? Constitution Party? Have you seen an ad for them or has one of the third party candidates been included in any of the debates with the Republicans or Democrats? The last time I looked the United States was a multi-party republic, not a two-party system. Yet the third party candidates are ignored.

The mainstream media has long been demonized in this regard. They do not seek out such third party candidates since they are not as popular and won’t generate as good ratings as the major party candidates. To be fair, people don’t seem to realize that media, although it carries a burden for public service, is a business and as such it seeks out customers who will generate the greatest revenue. The major parties have money to spend and people want to hear them, so they get the lion’s share of attention.

One subtle influence that the media does carry though is the capability to sway an election. It is subtle because even the observing and reporting of public opinion can change the atmosphere. The way it works is this…a media outlet conducts a poll, which shows that politician “A” has a 5-point lead over politician “B”. People listen to the results of this poll and some give in to the natural reaction to want to be ‘on the winning side’. So when the poll is repeated the following week politician “A” has a 10-percent lead. People begin to doubt the ability of “B” to win, so some more decide to vote for “A”. This is a natural thing for people to do who want to be on ‘the winning side’, yet if the media had not performed and publicized those polls, maybe the election would have been closer or the results different.

What happens to an election when the media begin reporting those same poll results and predicting which states will go with which candidate and allocate electoral college votes weeks, perhaps month in advance of the election? Such and such state is solidly Party A and so all those electoral college votes go to them, while this state and that one are solidly behind Party B. The feeling people have is that they should vote in a certain way, or that their vote doesn’t matter anyway since their state is expected to go in a particular direction. Essentially the media is determining through use of polls the results of an election that hasn’t even been held yet!

What else am I doing here besides complaining? There is only one thing which can stem the tide of these influences, and that is for an educated voter base to resist going with the crowd simply for the sake of going with the crowd. I am encouraging you to look beyond the polls, look beyond reporting by the mainstream media, get educated in the platforms of not just the two major parties, but the minor parties as well. And above all, vote for who you really want in office despite potentially being on the ‘losing side’.

Let each citizen remember at the moment he is offering his vote that he is not making a present or a compliment to please an individual--or at least that he ought not so to do; but that he is executing one of the most solemn trusts in human society for which he is accountable to God and his country.
Samuel Adams

The fact is that if we all follow each other like lemmings off a cliff, ultimately we are all losers in this contest.

Putting in our “two (per)cent’s worth”

It is September 11, 2008, now seven years since that fateful day in 2001. I can still remember exactly what I as doing as I watched the reports on television of the plane hitting the first tower and watching in disbelief as the second one hit. It seems that so many things happened and we said that the United States would never be the same. One thing that happened was that people suddenly became interested in world events and politics. People began to pay attention.

This last Tuesday was Primary Day in Vermont. There were four ballots this time….Republican, Democrat, Liberty Union and Green parties. I left work, went to the grocery store and headed home. My wife and I headed to the polls at 6pm; they were due to close at 7pm and we hoped we wouldn’t have to wait too long in line to vote. After all, a lot of people wait until after work to vote. We needn’t have worried.

When we walked in, we were greeted cheerily by the three poll workers. No one else was voting. As we turned in our three unused ballots and submitted our used one, the man at the ballot box told us that we were numbers sixty and sixty-one for the day. “Sixty and sixty-one? You’ve got to be kidding”, I said. “No”, he replied, “ you and your wife represent about two percent of the total vote for your precinct”. Doing the math, it actually comes out to slightly over three percent. Our precincts cover quite a bit of territory and there are only TWO polling places for our town and neighboring town precincts.

What happened to “we’ll never be the same again” after 9-11? I think people went back to the thought that their individual lives matter more than the impact that they might have voting. The life of the community is secondary. Maybe they feel that their vote doesn’t make a difference. It was disturbing too that the ballot we took had numerous spots where no one was running for office, and not a single office on the ballot was contested!

As a minister I cannot use my position to endorse a candidate or a party. But my faith and beliefs also tell me that voting is not simply a citizen’s right, but it their duty to vote. Our freedoms depend on people getting involved, perhaps especially as people of faith! I don’t care how you vote or who you vote for, but get out and get involved! You may not feel you have the time or knowledge to run for an office but your vote is needed. My wife and I represented over three percent of the vote from that precinct. Elections have been won or lost on less than that.

Don't just vote for who you think will win, simply to be on "the winning side", vote for who you believe is right. If appropriate, vote for a third party!

Another thing, when someone is elected, don’t simply criticize them. Pray for them and remember what we are told in Titus 1:1-2, “Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and to show true humility toward all men.”

We had a wakeup call in 2001. Let’s not waste it.

Letting it all hang out

I try to approach life with a little logic, a modicum of humor and a lot of faith, and try to keep the whining down to a dull roar. Sometimes, though, it gets to be a bit much. Vermont is a unique state in some ways, very conservative in some respects and very liberal in others which creates a bit of tension for all sides.


Coming in to work this morning I was behind a car which displayed a small decal in the window, advertising for all to see that the person driving (or perhaps the person owning) the vehicle is homosexual. Now, I don’t know about you, but I don’t particularly care what this person’s sexual orientation is. He, and it was a male driver, could prefer sleeping with an anatomically correct stuffed animal for all I care. I really don’t want to know those details and I’m not sure why it needs to be displayed and broadcast to everyone on the road. I am not homosexual, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, metrosexual or any of the other variations people are constantly inventing and I do not advertise it one way or the other. Yet we hear from the spokespersons of these lifestyles who say they just want to be treated like everyone else. So then, why the need to advertise your sexual preference with window stickers, decals, bumper stickers and such? Wasn’t the point supposed to be that our sexuality is something private and nobody else’s business?


Maybe the heterosexual, married and faithful majority should come up with its own symbol and make its preferences known. Now, don’t treat me any different from anyone else. Hey, I’ve got the right to hang my preferences out for everyone to see, too…right? After all, it’s private.

Trying new things

Trying new things seems to come hard for people. We get into a particular mode of operation and then we don’t want to change. We find even that when we do change something, that the ‘new’ way becomes entrenched as the "way we’ve always done it" very quickly.

During the 1960’s and 1970’s many churches decided to reach out with bus ministries. That was a radical concept at the time. As we reached into the 1980’s and 1990’s the effectiveness of such ministries declined, but operation continued because it was ‘traditional’. During the 1990’s a trend towards worship teams accelerated and became mainstream. Performance-oriented worship became the norm. A backlash occurred during the early part of this century and as effectiveness of performance-oriented worship declined more worship experience became ‘participant-oriented’. Still, there were those who were reluctant to change.

In my own personal life I have explored this to some degree. I thrive on trying new things, especially those things which many people consider to be not ‘worth the effort’. Years ago when my mother died I took over her crochet materials. Learning to crochet with her materials in hand not only resulted in a sense of accomplishment, but helped me through my grief. When I wanted a kilt the only way I could afford it was to make my own…a daunting job, but it turned out quite well and sufficed for my purposes. When I left the hospital this last March I came home with ideas of making my own yogurt and hard cheeses. This was for two reasons…it is cheaper and better quality than I can buy at the store, and people kept telling me it couldn’t be done at home. I found that going on the SCD diet encourages you to make things you would otherwise buy, because it is not possible to buy certain products, like truly lactose-free yogurt or nut-flour pita bread.

So, what should we try next in our church? Is it possible we are selling ourselves short by not making some changes? Not principles or doctrine, you understand, but methods. I like the way that Rick Warren put it in his book, “The Purpose Driven Church”. We are surfing on the wave of the Holy Spirit. Our job is not to make the waves, but to find where the Spirit is moving and cooperate with Him. When we do that, we will see ministry multiply like never before. Jesus said, “ …you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you” (Acts 1:8) Our power, too, is promised when the Holy Spirit comes upon us. It is already there, waiting, we just need to be available and watch for Him to act.

Surf on, dude!

SCD and the doctors

Life gets more and more interesting as we get older it seems. Two years ago and I would not have been able to tell you what ulcerative colitis or pancreatitis were, but I have now become somewhat of an expert in them. I can tell you standard courses of treatment, criteria for diagnosis, and progress of the conditions. I can also tell you some things you probably don't want to hear, even the doctors don't particularly want to listen.

One of the lessons I learned over the last few months is that the nurses who you meet can be much more open-minded than doctors. Take, for instance, the case for dietary treatment of UC. There is a diet that has existed since the 1950's called the "Specific Carbohydrate Diet" (SCD for short) which is used to treat not only UC, but Crohn's, Celiac and even some forms of autism. The diet is gluten-free, lactose-free and disaccharide-free. If you talk to your doctor about it you will be told the same thing I was told. "There is no study proving a connection between diet and effective treatment of UC. Medicine and surgery are your only options. A diet won't hurt, but it probably won't help."

Most nurses will tell you that this is a bunch of baloney...at least when the doctors are out of earshot. Why? Because there are no studies being conducted to prove the connection, and doctors rely on large-scale double-blind studies to base their treatment upon. Why no studies? Most of them are sponsored by large pharmaceutical companies who will make no money, and in fact will lose money, if such studies are performed. The nurse who explained this to me has two degrees in nutrition in addition to her nursing degree and has been in healthcare fro 25 years. Moreover, she took her health care into her own hands when the doctors gave up on her.

Other treatment options I discussed with my doctor included things he had either not known of or decided not to tell me (like using "Low Dose Naltrexone"). I needed to at least know what these options were before having them dismissed.

The moral of the story is that you must advocate for yourself, or have someone in a position to do so. Treatments may be out there, but you may not get a completely unbiased opinion from your doctor alone. Listen to your nurses, do your own research. Along with the conditions that come with being a little older comes a certain degree of assertiveness and that most Biblical of characteristics, wisdom. "How much better to get wisdom than gold, to choose understanding rather than silver!" Proverbs 16:16 Gain understanding of yourself, your body and your conditions and it will be better than having gold or silver.

Spring has sprung!

Last Wednesday morning something happened I have anxiously been waiting for. As spring approaches I watch the sides of the hills around here, especially towards Georgia over the waters of Arrowhead Mountain Lake, and look for signs of color. But not green like you might expect; I watch for red. Oh, sure, the green of the evergreens is always there, and the green of the hills will come ("Green Mountain state"...hint, hint) but the first color of spring that I look for is the red of the budding leaves of the maple trees. The hills turn a distinct shade of red. It's more subtle than the shades we see in the fall, but whereas the autumn colors mean that we have only a few days left until 'stick' season and then winter, the red that comes in spring means that in a few days we'll see the world turn green once again. The red color is the first sign of hope in new life.

So too, in the Christian life red is the color of hope. The blood of Jesus was the means by which we could have hope for a new life. "Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him!" Romans 5:9 Every year I look for the red of the hills so I can know that spring has really come. And I look to the blood of Jesus to know that new life has started.

Short but joyful lives

About a year and a half ago my family went through a very traumatic experience when we lost our dog, Rocky. I've owned many dogs in my life but never one quite like him. He had a degree of personality that was quite amazing, and had a full range of vocalizations that seemed almost human. By the time he died at the age of ten he was completely blind due to glaucoma and had epilepsy. It was an uncontrollable seizure that finally took his life. One of the unfortunate side-effects of his being so extraordinary was that he took our hearts by storm, and it was very difficult to open ourselves up again. This was very hard in particular on my wife.

When I came out of the hospital last month one of the promises I made myself was to get another dog. I knew that we needed it, not just for the companionship, even though that was important, but because there was healing that needed to be done. And with Debbie being home much of the time it would also give her someone else to focus upon, making life that much less lonely.

The paradox of the animal-human connection is that most of our pets will not live as long as we will. We take them into our lives and hearts knowing that fact, but trying to deny it as long as we can. But I maintain that the joy our companion animals bring into our lives is worth the heartache of knowing that we will likely lose them at some point. Even when we chose a spouse, we must acknowledge that eventually one of us (in most cases) will lose the other. Life is simply not worth living if we do not open ourselves up to the joy and love of others, even knowing that the opposite side of the coin is eventual pain and loss. God did that with us...He opened Himself up to us, knowing that He would have to watch His only Son die on a cross.

This last weekend we opened our hearts again, and will welcome two rescued Shih Tzu into our home. We may not be able to make a difference for all the dogs out there, but we can make a difference for these two...and they in turn will make a difference in our lives. Let the joy begin.

We’re admitting you!

A couple weeks ago I spent 16 days in the hospital, Fletcher Allen Health Center in Burlington. During that time I learned some interesting things that I thought might be worth passing along.

• Those ‘Johnnies’ are meant for the convenience of the doctors, not your comfort or sense of modesty.
• The nurses on the floor have their own stash of food and drink; you don’t have to wait for the cafeteria!
• There are cards, board games and magazines available for patients, but they don’t go out of the way to mention it.
• Don’t let the Emergency Room people put an IV port in the crook of your elbow. It’s a bad place to do it and the nurses on the floor will probably not want to change it. Spending a week like that is sheer torture.
• Those ‘Johnnies’ have pajama bottoms they don’t tell you about until the fourth day.
• The hospital is a terrible place to try to rest. There are too many interruptions between medical equipment alarms, blood draws, vital sign checks, medication administration and the lady down the hall who keeps yelling about the hospital being on fire.
• Be nice to the nurses and LNA's. They really are trying to help you and have a tough job. Besides, they control things like how often you get woken during the night, so you want to be on their good side!
• Daytime TV really does suck your mind out. Someday they'll have a study that finds it a cause of memory loss, drooling and vacant stares.
• The Johnnies are actually three pieces, but they don’t tell you that until you are ready to leave. They not only have pajama bottoms, they come with a robe.
• No matter how long you stay, you only get ONE pair of slipper socks, so ask someone to bring some slippers and socks from home for you. Otherwise your feet are going to get really dirty and stinky by Day 3.
• The hospital would like you to exercise, so walk around the hallway. The alternative is a shot to prevent blood clots…given in the belly. If I were you, I’d walk!
• Oh, and don’t bother asking for any equipment to exercise, like resistance bands. You need to ask the nurse, who will need a referral from your doctor to Physical Therapy, who will then need to do an assessment along with approval from your insurance company, and then they MIGHT give you a piece of rubber to use. Just have someone go to Walmart and get the six dollar set to bring in for you. It’s faster, cheaper and less frustrating.
• Don’t spit in the urinal bottle. It makes the nurses nervous when they examine it. We had quite a laugh when my roommate did so and had a nurse and Physicians Assistant trying to figure out what he had passed.
• Finally, find your humor wherever you can. It really does help to laugh.
  

So, enjoy your hospital stay! It’s probably not as bad as it sounds.

Tracks in the snow

This last Sunday my wife and I were driving to church, taking the highway. If you’ve ever been in Vermont you know the one I mean, because it is one of two in the state and the one used by more people than the other. Of course, there are only two lanes each way for the entire length of Route 89, which would barely qualify as a highway in most places. But it is ours and we like it (and hate it, too).

To get back to the story, we were between Exit 18 and Exit 19, and looking off to the right I noticed a set of tracks in the snow. I knew they weren’t rabbit…wrong pattern. Too small to be a deer. Too many to be a dog, fox or coyote. Too big to be rodents. Then we saw them, a nice little flock of wild turkeys by the side of the road, weaving in and out of the undergrowth searching for breakfast.

When we lived ‘down south’ we’d be excited to see the occasional groundhog sitting up on the shoulder of the highway watching traffic go by. Seldom did we see anything more out of the ordinary. But in Vermont we are treated to regular glimpses of wildlife. At Exit 17 when getting onto the on ramp, at least several times a month I will see deer. A few weeks ago there were five running across the field, tails showing high alert.

My wife has seen moose on more than one occasion, including having one run into the side of the car in Williston near 'Best Buy'! Coyote, fox and rabbits are all frequent visitors. My wife’s birdfeeder is patronized by perhaps a score of species. Along Route 89 and Route 7 we can see various raptors as they watch the fields for tender mouse morsels. The banks of the Lamoille River near Georgia High Bridge provide summer entertainment with muskrats and water birds.

To no ones delight we found that our nice warm house was attractive to field mice in the fall and the occasional spring garter snake. But Northern Vermont is bereft of poisonous species, so we take comfort in that knowledge. One of our more humorous incidents involved a chipmunk running through the house during a church summer social!

So, why do we love living in Vermont? Many reasons, but one of the strongest is the connection back to the wild life that we have, even if it is largely vicarious and seen through glass. It still reminds us that there are other things in life than television, traffic and shopping malls.

“ And God said, "Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky…let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind." And it was so…And God saw that it was good." Gen 1:20, 24-25(NIV)

Sliding Backwards

A trend in churches which we must be attentive to is that when a denomination grows older it loses some of the emphasis on basics of the Christian faith. Some of its morals and ethics lapse. For instance, there are several major denominations right now fighting such issues as recognition of gay clergy, acceptance of couples ‘living together’, emphasis on biblical authority and other actions which until the last few decades would have been simply put down as sin. Such denominations are in a life and death struggle and risk becoming theologically liberal at the least and apostate at the worst.

Other denominations fight different battles, but none the less significant. The slide back into the bondage of fundamentalist theology is fueled by lack of education and understanding of some basic theological issues. Women in the clergy is one such issue the Church of the Nazarene faces right now. History shows us that the Church of the Nazarene and sister denominations like the Salvation Army have a proud lineage of women in the pulpit. As a matter of fact, in “1908, one-sixth of the 178 ordained ministers in the Holiness Church of Christ were women” (1) , the Holiness Church of Christ being one of the formative branches of the Nazarene church. As a matter of fact, “as late as 1955, women pastored 230 Churches of the Nazarene." (2) The sad fact is that fundamentalist influences caught up with Nazarenes in the 1960’s and years following, and combined with a lack of good teaching on the subject resulted in a tragic decrease in women in ministry. “In 1985, the number decreased to 52” (3) , that is women pastoring Nazarene churches. “Dr. Stan Ingersol, director of the Nazarene Archives and author of a biography of Mary Harris Cagle, says it is because holiness churches have tried so hard to blend in with the evangelical “mainstream,” which has tended to oppose women in ministry” (4) .

We do the church a great disservice by not recognizing the call of women into ministry. Women have always been part of the church and, if not for women, it is likely that the church would not have survived to where it is today. Great women have been teachers and preachers, like Gen. Catherine Booth, Phoebe Palmer, Hannah Whitall Smith, Amanda Berry Smith, Susan Norris Fitkin, Gen. Eva Burrows and Nina Gunter. On our own New England District we have the first black woman to be a District Superintendent, Dr. Jossie Owens. And yet, on our District of one-hundred plus churches we have a tiny percentage (between 7 and 8 percent) of Senior Pastors who are female (depending on how you cut the numbers).

Education about women in ministry is certainly going to be a key item to getting more women into senior positions, but so is some boldness. The Gospel tells us that we must stand up for the truth and champion those who need it. David Thompson of the Wesleyan Church puts it well when he says, “…the problem is not lack of biblical warrant, but lack of leadership and conviction. We have to take responsibility in local churches for calling, and at district levels for appointing to leadership ministries, the women whom God is gifting and calling for those ministries in The Wesleyan Church. And we must do it now.” (5) We need to take a stand for the women among us who are called by God (note…by God, not by men!), given undeniable gifts and graces, and find opportunities for them to minister in the way God wants them , not relegated to conveniently out-of-sight, back-room ministry.

1 http://www.nazarene.org/ministries/ssm/adult/women/clergy/history/display.aspx
2 http://www.nazarene.org/ministries/ssm/adult/women/clergy/history/display.aspx
3 http://www.nazarene.org/ministries/ssm/adult/women/clergy/history/display.aspx
4 http://www.whwomenclergy.org/article68.htm
5 http://www.whwomenclergy.org/article5.htm

Technology and the Minister: Email

When you think of the Internet the image that normally comes to mind is that of the graphics and flash of the World Wide Web. The WWW, though, is only one piece of a larger whole which we call the Internet. One of the very first elements of the Internet is Email. Broadly defined “E-mail (electronic mail) is the exchange of computer-stored messages by telecommunication” (source: http://searchmobilecomputing.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid40_gci212051,00.html) . At it’s most basic an email message is a text letter sent from one person to another.

Am email message has several advantages over its hard-copy ancestor. First, it is faster. The typical ‘snail mail’ message takes between one and three days to be delivered, while an email message is typically delivered within minutes if not seconds. Second, it is available anywhere you can get to an internet connection. If you are using a web-based email system (even AOL has a web interface) then you can access your messages or send a message from virtually anywhere in the world you can access the web. Snail mail can be sent from anywhere, but you can only receive it at designated locations. In other words, you can send someone a birthday card from any mailbox, but you can only get your incoming mail at your mailbox. Third, email is paperless and most systems will allow you to ‘attach’ documents of various kinds. You can send someone a multi-page spreadsheet or document by the push of a button. Fourth, email is (or can be) free, while snail mail requires paper, envelopes and stamps. With a significant amount of mail going out even the paid services become economically feasible.

Another feature of email that enhances it usefulness is the Distribution List. This is a way of designating a group of people who will receive a single email. For a mailing sent to every member of the church, for instance, in snail mail you would have to print a letter to each, fold them, stick them in envelopes and stamp them. To do the same thing with email you would write a single email message, enter the name of the distribution list (‘All Church Members’ or some other easily remembered name) and hit the ‘send’ button.

One last advantage of the email address. Since the world has moved inexorably into the “Age of Communication” more and more people have come to expect to be able to contact others in this way. Placing your email address on your corporate literature tells the world that you are not stuck in the past and that you are opening the doors. Psychologically it is a wise move, and it shows marketing savvy as well.

Technology and the Minister: Technology Overload

The term ‘Technology Overload’ is a strange one to western ears. Technology is always supposed to be 'good', isn't it? How can you have too many gadgets? That seems to run contrary to our culture. But this is a matter which ministers must pay close attention to in order to actually perform ministry.

The key question here is, “What does this technology do for me and is it worth the effort?” Each gadget or technology which we decide to use should have a specific task or set of tasks which it handles. The end result must save enough time, money and effort for ministry purposes to make the effort productive. If it does not, then the technology actually hinders ministry.

A simple example would be as follows. A minister decides to use a calendar software package on his laptop to keep track of events because it has a nice graphical interface. However, the package does not support imports from his current software on his PDA. Each event is going to have to be entered by hand into the new package. After entering, the new package requires the user to perform a series of steps when trying to print a comprehensive list, and a further set of steps if the user wants to break events into categories (Birthdays, Church events, Personal events…). In this case the nice interface is costing the pastor much time and effort. This translates into more time spent in front of a computer monitor than in ministry and therefore is not worth the effort.

Another example of a positive experience might go like this: The pastor needs to send birthday and anniversary cards out to a number of people. He knows that these people are technologically savvy and check their email frequently. He goes onto the Internet to a favorite site and selects an Electronic Greeting card for each of them, spending about 3 minutes each. Not only does he do this in the same time it would take to write the cards by hand, he saves the cost of the card, the cost of the postage and the card is delivered nearly instantaneously. As long as the recipients regard an e-card in the same way they regard a physical card, he has found a way to leverage technology to his advantage.

When considering new technology, ask yourself these questions:

• Is it going to save me more money than it costs (including labor time)?
• Is it going to save me time over what I am doing now?
• Is it going to open new possibilities for me?
• Is it going to save me effort?
• Is it going to be more accurate, and does that matter to me?

If you can answer at least three of these questions positively, then it probably is a good thing. If you can answer four positively, then it definitely is a good decision to incorporate the technology. Anything less than three, don’t bother.

Remember, technology is supposed to help you do a job. If it doesn’t do that, then it is failing to give you what you need.

Technology and the Minister: The PDA

Society is becoming increasingly mobile and hectic. Demographics prove this out, but all we really have to do is look at our schedules. The typical pastor may spend his or her day between several different locations, the church office, the hospital, a meeting at McDonalds and a conference at the District office. In between all of that the pastor is expected to find time to study to pray, to prepare a sermon, to put together a program for Sunday morning, do a Sunday School lesson and a devotional for the Wednesday night Study. How do you keep it all straight, never mind accomplish it all?

One of the best tools you can use to accomplish these tasks and make life easier is the humble PDA, or “Personal Digital Assistant”. Typical models range anywhere from US$100 to US$500 in 2008. The most useful for the money tend to be in the range of US$200-US$300, with my personal favorite the Palm Tungsten E2 being US$200.

Those unfamiliar with PDA’s assume they are fancy electronic calendars and not much more. If that were so I would still recommend them, because of the many features the calendars employ. The typical PDA calendar application, such as Palm Desktop, will allow you to keep track of events and set reminders for them. But it will also allow you to sort and categorize entries, displaying only what you need. It will also allow you to synchronize with the Palm Desktop calendar application on your office PC, or with MS Outlook should you prefer. But their usefulness only begins with the calendar.

Scenario – you have taken a group of teens on Saturday to a District Bible Quizzing meet. It is over an hour away from home. It has begun snowing quite heavily and you know that it is not worth going home and coming back, even though you have a Sunday program and a sermon to complete. Solution - You are not worried, because you had the foresight to upload your sermon and the bulletin outline to your PDA. You go upstairs and grab a Hymnal, find a quiet corner to set up your Infrared Keyboard and within three hours it is all done. When the quizzers are finished you drive them home, go to your office and upload the documents to your PC to print them.

Just exactly this happened to me about three years ago. If it had not been for my PDA, I would have had a very hard time finishing everything without putting in a very long night. I attended a seminar with the well-known churchplanter Rev. Ralph Moore of Hope Chapel in Kaneohe, Hawaii about 8 years ago. The seminar was conducted in Nashua, New Hampshire. While having lunch he told us that normally he was traveling for several days out of the week. He would compose his sermons and notes on his PDA, then on Friday he would connect to the Internet to send the documents to his office where his secretary would print them. By the time he got home his sermon and other materials were on his desk waiting for him.

What did I use to edit my documents? Believe it or not I used Microsoft Word, through an application called DocumentsToGo. My PDA writes to native Word format, and I can even keep track of church statistics on-the-fly with a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. These applications come bundled with the PDA. Keeping track of expenses is just as easy with the PalmSource “Expense” application. Simply set up your categories and start entering information.

Another very useful application is the “Contact” database, also included with the PDA. This interfaces with your Calendar application and displays items like birthdays on the calendar. Email is easy to compose and you can send it when you next connect to the Internet, either through your desktop PC or by WiFi (if so equipped).

Need inspiration or relaxation while out and about? Use your PDA along with a set of earbuds and listen to the MP3’s you have stored on your PDA or memory card. For an even better experience when traveling you can use your PDA hooked up to your car stereo using a CD-to-Tape converter (US$10-US$20).

One of the blessings you will find right away is the speed and stability of the operating system. The Palm OS is extremely stable, and is nearly instant when turning on. Setup is easy and quick, and is very intuitive. Writing with a stylus should you choose to do so can be quick but takes a little getting used to.

There are many different ways to use your PDA effectively for ministry, and many different add-ons, but it can be life-transforming right out of the box. All of this from a small device that will slip easily into a suit jacket pocket.

Practical uses for a Family History?

Back when I was attending college, oh so long ago, I worked in a library. One of my friends was about 20 years older than I and he was in charge of what we called "Special Collections". This was the room that contained all the local history, newspaper microfilms and genealogy resources. My father and I began an adventure, courtesy of my friend Walter, which has lasted a lifetime...well, a lifetime and a half since my father has now passed away and I have not as of the time of this writing! We started tracing the history of our family.

As any person interested in family history will tell you, you'll always have those family members who will ask, "Are you done with that family history yet?". That question will make the genealogist's eyes roll because there is no such thing as a 'complete' family history! The other question the genealogist may encounter is from those who wonder, "Why do you want to know all this stuff? It is all past and not of any use." I propose to suggest some uses for your 'useless' family history.

A genealogist thrives on obscure documents. One of the most useful of those documents is the 'Death Certificate'. Usually the certificate will have on it a listed cause of death and an age at death. Combining your family history chart with a cause of death for each of your ancestors can show you interesting patterns. Some of these patterns can be life-saving. For instance, noticing that your lineage includes a history of certain kinds of cancer or other diseases may indicate to you that routine exams should be targeting these for early detection. Even a chart going back for a very few generations can be helpful.

Along with knowing the causes of death for a few generations it may be possible for you to compile known non-fatal diseases and illnesses for at least two generations in either direction from your own. For instance, if your grandfather had asthma, two of his children had asthma, four of their children as well, you now have a traceable connection. The same can be applied to illnesses like diabetes, arthritis and heart problems. Many genealogy programs have screens especially for keeping track of this kind of information. Be aware that sometimes such issues are sensitive, so don't publish data like this indiscriminately.

Another use for family history can bring you financial rewards. For instance, connecting your family tree to certain events such as the American Revolution may help in finding money for college. The Daughters of the American Revolution site states, "Any woman is eligible for membership who is no less than eighteen years of age and can prove lineal, blood line descent from an ancestor who aided in achieving American independence", and there are scholarships available only to members of the DAR. (source: http://www.dar.org/natsociety/edout_scholar.cfm, 1/17/2008) Likewise, connection to specific ethnic groups may help in the same way if the connection is close enough.

A third use for family history may be a little more intangible, but still valuable. Having an interest in family history promotes an interest in history in general. It may give your children topics and stories to build upon for school assignments. It may build your general knowledge of subjects such as writing, history, math and technology.

In terms of ego-building, it is always nice to be thought of as the 'go-to' person for something. Rarely are there more than a few people in a family really interested in such topics, so you will likely be the instant expert. If you want to carry it far enough you can even write a book on your family! Just be sure to keep the juicy but controversial bits from the last generation or so properly private or you'll be the 'go-to' person in other respects.

There are many uses, very practical uses, for family history. If you haven't started yet, now is the time to do so. People die, and with it their first-hand knowledge. Pictures and letters are destroyed by accident and on purpose. Homes are sold, people's memories fade. You can't recover these things later, but if you start preserving them now you will not regret it.

Happy hunting!

I Kilt myself!

It’s interesting the reaction that you get doing some things. My family has always celebrated its heritage in one way or another. In general we are old-family Yankee.When growing up my mother’s relatives always called the porch a ‘piazza’ and we always took our pasta seriously in deference to my Mom’s Italian roots. My grandmother spoke fluent French-Canadian. And my father gave special attention to his experiences among the Native American friends on his father’s side as well as his Scottish roots.


A couple years ago I put together a kilt (not my own Clan Gunn tartan, but Black Watch tartan) and have worn it around the house and in the yard. Once or twice I’ve worn it out on an errand, but it’s not that great a sewing job, so I don’t do it very much. Generally I’ve gotten some good comments on it. I find that there is somewhat of a controversy about kilts though, especially where Christians are concerned. There is this verse in the Bible (actually in more than one place) that talks about men not wearing women’s clothes, and vice-versa. Deuteronomy 22:5 says, "A woman must not wear men's clothing, nor a man wear women's clothing, for the LORD your God detests anyone who does this".



The question becomes, especially in today’s society, what is appropriate clothing for men and what is inappropriate? The first thing I point out is that Kilts are first and foremost men’s clothing. The specific style and construction have always been worn by men in Scottish culture…in all Celtic cultures, really. If a woman was to wear a Kilt, she would be wearing a male style of clothing. The cut and construction are tailored to men; that has never stopped women, but they are generally given more leeway than men in such things.


Secondly, there are very few real ‘unisex’ garments. Most are cut to accommodate a woman’s anatomy OR a man’s anatomy. Therefore a man would be very uncomfortable in a woman’s pantsuit, while a woman would have extra material and an uncomfortable fit in a man’s pair of pants…either would not be flattered by the fit. This is also why it becomes very hard to pin down a particular garment class as being either male or female…are pants in general male or female? Is a shirt in general male or female? Garments this gender specific in our culture might be limited to such things as underwear, intimate garments or panty hose. In another culture it might be a little more clear cut.



Thirdly, scripturally I think the injunction is pretty clear. Don’t wear things that culturally indicate that you are gender-bending.


It has helped my case to note that in the past few years there has been a resurgence in prominent kilt-wearers such as Sir Sean Connery, TV shows like 'The Highlander' and films such as Braveheart starring Mel Gibson, as historically inaccurate as that film is. Anyone care to tell Sean Connery that he's a sissy? I'd like to be a fly on the wall when you do!



When all is said and done, if the Kilt is worn in context there is nothing wrong with it from a scriptural standpoint. But, in the words of Peter, "be prepared to give a ready defense..." and in keeping with scripture, avoid knowingly offending our weaker brothers (and sisters).

Who needs Theology?

Mention the word ‘theology’ and you’ll probably get a chorus of yawns and rolled eyes. In Western society we are taught very little about theology, just that it is boring, that polite people don’t discuss religion or politics because it is controversial and a matter of private opinion, and that it has nothing to do with real life anyway. So who need theology? Everyone, actually. And everyone deals in theological matters each and every day whether they realize it or not.

Theology is, first and foremost, the basis for our worldview. A worldview is the lens through which we view everything around us and perhaps more important it is the underlying basis for each and every decision we make. A worldview is comprised of those things we consider important and even ‘transcendent’. If this is so, then how could we let such an important thing go unexamined? Socrates said, “An unexamined life is not worth living”, which has a large element of truth in it.

Someone out there might say, “I’m an atheist, so since I don’t believe in God I don’t care about theology”. Even so, that person still has a worldview (based on atheism) and atheism is by definition an opinion on the existence and nature of God, and therefore is a theological viewpoint.

An example of how theology can be applied daily by anyone might be taken from my own tradition of evangelical Christianity. Since I believe that Jesus Christ is the earthly representation of God, and that my goal is to become as Christ-like as possible, and knowing that Jesus said that we should be concerned with the poor and outcast of society, I will find ways to help people in whatever way I can. It may be through contributing to a good cause like the Salvation Army or it might be to give a ride to a Senior Citizen when they need to get to the doctor’s office. It might be simply talking to and listening to a hurting soul. The point is that my theology dictates my actions.

The challenge is obvious. Examine your theology. Is your life in line with what you say you believe? If not, you are living a lie. A person who says they love humanity, but doesn’t love individual people is a hypocrite. Whether your theology holds water (reflects reality, is truthful…) is the subject for another post.

Where exactly IS Vermont?

My daughter related a conversation to me that took place at her school in Illinois. Apparently the question was the standard icebreaker, “Tell us something about yourself and where you come from”. After relating some details of her life one of her classmates asked her, “So, what state is Vermont in?” The question absolutely flabbergasted her, and even more so when she realized that there was more than one person who didn’t know that Vermont IS a state! Now, this was in a University with a wonderful liberal arts program, but I have to wonder about our High Schools who send kids on to college who don’t know at least that small detail. It makes me wonder what else they don’t know.


If you are reading this and feeling a little embarrassed because YOU don’t know where Vermont is, let me tell you. Vermont is located in New England, north of Massachusetts, and sandwiched between New Hampshire and New York. The northern border is the Canadian province of Quebec; the largest city Burlington is only a 2-hour drive from Montreal.



The name 'Vermont' comes from the French and means “Green Mountain”. Appropriately enough Vermont is known as the “Green Mountain State” and is home to the “Green Mountain National Forest”. The state capital is Montpelier. It is still the only state capital without a McDonalds, and at least until recently was about the only place where anyone could walk directly into the Capital building without going through a metal detector and a search. This despite the fact that Vermont has no (zero, nada, zip, zilch…) state gun laws. Concealed carry without a permit is a right of every adult citizen within the limits of federal law. You don’t often hear about firearms being used to commit crimes, at least not nearly at the levels of neighboring states. After all, try to mug that little old lady and you might find she’s carrying a .357 Magnum !

Vermont is an independently-minded state. We are one of only two states in the continental US which were previously fully sovereign countries prior to statehood, the other one being Texas. That said, it is a conflicted state…extremely liberal on the one hand (first state to legalize same-sex civil-unions and the only state to have a Socialist elected to Washington) and extremely conservative on the other hand (Second Amendment rights are taken very seriously). A destination in the 1970’s for back-to-nature hippies, it is now a destination for techies and yuppies trying to escape the rat race of the city. Vermont has a large agricultural tradition which the aforementioned back-to-nature people enhanced. One of the legacies handed down is a law against billboards on Highway right-of-ways (one of only four states in the nation to do so), which makes a drive through Vermont a scenic delight.


Vermont still has only about 600,000 people…compared to the city I lived in down in Massachusetts which had 125,000 all by itself! The largest city in Vermont is Burlington, which has a population in the city proper of only some 38,000. Demographics indicate that the state is 98% Caucasian making it the second whitest state in the US (behind Wyoming).

So yes, Virginia, Vermont IS a state! And I maintain that it is a state with not only some unique attributes, but is one of the most beautiful states you are likely to see. Come visit and bring your camera. You won’t be disappointed!