JoelWalkley

JoelWalkley

26p

20 comments posted · 0 followers · following 0

13 years ago @ Stuff Christians Like ... - What do you do for a l... · 0 replies · +2 points

I pastor a church in Timberville, VA. Its your picturesque small white country church, and the first church I am serving out of seminary. Because the ministry is part-time I also work at a group home for folks with developmental disabilities.

I'm a volunteer firefighter and working on my EMT right now. I felt it was important to be involved in the community as a pastor, but I am just too young to be a Ruritan/Lion/old-people-social-club ;)

13 years ago @ Stuff Christians Like ... - Handbells. · 2 replies · +2 points

I've always wondered why it is called handbell "choir." There's no singing in handbells...isn't it more like a handbell band?

That might make for an interesting Christian spin-off from Rock Band.

13 years ago @ Stuff Christians Like ... - Fancy pulpits. · 0 replies · +1 points

I guess our church is a little behind the times. I got overly excited 3 weeks ago when I discovered a wireless mic in my desk drawer which will free me from the pulpit (even the fancy ones).

13 years ago @ Stuff Christians Like ... - Wishing they'd stop re... · 2 replies · +1 points

I can't tell you how many times I have rent or purchased a beloved movie from my 80s & 90s childhood only to discover that I enjoyed the TV-versions of those films: 16 candles (full frontal shower scene at the very beginning), Hear No Evil, See No Evil (wow those dudes are potty mouths), and Stripes (spying on the female barracks).

They have nice story lines, I just wish I could buy the tv-version and not trick my mind into believing that my parents let me watch Coming to America as a 9 year old. Do TV-cuts still exist? I haven't watched tv since we got Netflix.

14 years ago @ Stuff Christians Like ... - Tangible Sermon Reminders · 2 replies · +1 points

These days you'd have to give out ipods for that message.

14 years ago @ Stuff Christians Like ... - Tangible Sermon Reminders · 0 replies · +2 points

During a youth Sunday (because that is the only Sunday we could have gotten away with TSR at my home church) they handed out filthy rags as people were heading into the service and they exchanged them for clean white cloths on the way out. It was supposed to be how Jesus took your sins and made them clean.

pros: rags are cheap and abundant. The white cloths were a blank slate of possibility afterward: it could be a kleenex, a duster, a napkin, a flag, a towel, the choice is yours!

cons: a TSR before the sermon made everyone ask "what is this about?"; perpetuates the idea that black=bad and white=good. Stinky middle school boys donated their old stinky clothes for rags.

application: The white cloth was used for various household cleaning chores thus eventually reverting the token back into a filthy rag.

14 years ago @ Stuff Christians Like ... - Telling someone they s... · 0 replies · +1 points

After you told us not to tell, then you ask if we've ever fasted - that's entrapment!

I've fasted, and I believe there is benefit in self denial. Remember that Jesus said "don't let your right hand know what your left hand is doing" when it comes to good works but he also said "let your light shine that when others see your good works, they may praise God."

If you reveal your fast for praise then that's a bad reason. But if you reveal your fast to others that they may also praise God then thats the whole point.

14 years ago @ The Church of No People - The Marriage Doctor is In · 0 replies · +2 points

The pastoral counseling professor in seminary said he always required premarital counseling before he would marry anyone...but then he would quickly add "it never worked" saying the couples are two drunk on love to hear a word you have to tell them.

I guess it is like one of those Mother Theresa riddles "do it anyway."

14 years ago @ The Church of No People - Who Has Better Better ... · 0 replies · +1 points

We could use nets.

14 years ago @ The Church of No People - Who Has Better Better ... · 2 replies · +1 points

Advertising Jesus sounds like some dangerous territory to me. Its a bit more difficult than advertising beer, cause we live in a world that doesn't necessarily want Jesus, but beer more or less sells itself.

Baptizing the Lord in the latest cultural fads and using the best advertising techniques will only advertise a non-Jesus.