Today I’ll pass along my semi-annual reflections on t-Blog.

I’m sorry to hear that kurtmaddox has chosen to erase his blog.  Kurt has been integral to this community since before I came onboard, which was four years ago.  He has proven to be a gadfly, pest, and highly irritating ex-Baptist agnostic who seems most often to be on the opposite end of the conversation and therefore highly valuable.  In this venue I use conversation to develop my thinking, which is something I just cannot get by hanging around people who are too much like myself.  It would be a shame for t-Blog to deteriorate into a hang-out for a bunch of folk who think and live alike.  Such is my church and I love it.  But I need something different from this place.  The challenge makes me sharper.  And Kurt, like so many of the rest of you, at times has served well as a whetstone for my mind and heart.

So, as Kurt has moved along, it gets me to thinking about what I need to do.  Often life seems too busy, and sometimes I do not feel very creative.  And a couple of these personalities around here have really hit me the wrong way in the last few months.  But I’m not going to leave.  Not now.  I like the place and the personalities, even the ones that right now I will not sit down and have a cup of coffee with.  Such will pass, similar to being angry with a cousin or an old friend.  And such is what this place has become to me- a place to regularly connect with people I’ve come to know, at least in a cyber-kind-of-way.  It may be for just a few minutes.  Sometimes it may involve a simple and surface conversation.  Ah, but sometimes I’ll be surprised and energized by a long and meaningful exchange.  Or I’ll hear something I do not know, or something said will tickle me and truly make my day better.  And, so expresses the value of this community.

I know, even as I write, that it sounds a bit strange.  I’m not a guy who shies away from social interaction or has nothing to do.  My life is busy and rewarding outside of this place.  But… sometime during the day, and usually several times, I’ll log onto t-Blog to see what is happening.  Why?  As corny as it sounds, it’s now a part of my life.  It’s my friendly, dysfunctional, cyber-family.

And, Kurt, I truly wanted to interact with your last post.  An agnostic, anti-religionist, Bible-discounting ex-Baptist, now a tree-hugging liberal, preaching the Sunday morning sermon in a little country church?  I have a few opinions about that!

---

posted by: OldSchool (reply)
post date: 11.19.08 (7:23 am)

Hey PD, tBlog has become a part of my life too (in a relative short time since I have only been here about 11 months so far).
I enjoy so many of the people here at tBlog (yourself obviously included on that list), but I will really miss Kurt. Even though there are quite of few great folks here, there is so much junk to weed through and when you lose one of the good ones, it makes the bad ones stand out a little more.
I always try to be optimistic, so I would like to hope that more great people/bloggers will join tBlog in the coming year to keep this community thriving. We just cannot afford to lose too many more good ones along the way either.

Thanks to all that make tBlog the special place that I have known it to be so far.

---

posted by: Ladyg (reply)
post date: 11.19.08 (9:22 am)

I have been here long enough to see so many of my cyber friends go. It still makes me sad to see another one go, especially Kurt, he left once before and just couldn't stay away, in no time at all he was back blogging again.

Things have changed in his life, he has a new wife and have to be less controversial because of her job.

This time I think that he is gone for good and I will really miss him.

---

posted by: bawdy (reply)
post date: 11.19.08 (12:57 pm)

So now I'm not even good enough to sit down and have a cup of coffee with? Har-umph!

I'm sorry Kurt felt the need to leave. He was one of the most intelligent people here. Some might see that as a backhanded compliment. heh

---

posted by: sweetvampiress (reply)
post date: 11.19.08 (1:01 pm)

I remember Kurt back when I was on here years ago.I would say 3 years ago. I enjoyed reading his blog. I left due to personal reasons, but I am back now because of the family that is created here. I've tried many blogging platforms, but they just do not compare because you don't meet new and interesting people on them like here. Hopefully he will be back. Maybe under a different alias like me.

---

posted by: Kurt (reply)
post date: 11.19.08 (1:23 pm)

Ah, it seems every great Hero needs a worthy villian, or at least a worthy anti-Hero! lol! I just don't have a blog here anymore -- I'm not gone. I love the sense of sitting in on one's own funeral I get from this blog and from the comments.

I truly love you all as my friends and I'll not leave you completely unless tBlog disappears. I actually tried to set-up an anonymous blog, but tBlog's got some issues, as we all know, and couldn't set up a new account. Unfortunately, deleting my old account was the prudent thing for me to do.

As for your labeling of me, Pastor Dave, I love it all -- particularly because it is mostly wrong and says more about you than it does about me ;-)

First, I'm not an agnostic, although I've played one on the Internet from time-to-time -- if anything, I might be a gnostic. My own label for myself would be "Neo-Gnostic Christian Universalist". I know you'll have some fun with that one.

As for my beloved little country church, they get good ol' Baptist fundamentalism 365 days a year for the past 75 years -- I don't think one loving message from one of their own wayward sons will put them on the path to perdition. The fundamentalist have already pretty much wrecked the church already so there's not much left for me to corrupt in a single 20 minute session :-)

I, too, love our interactions, Pastor Dave. Often, as I think you full-well know, I've intentionally postured as your nemesis -- and sometimes I really am -- so that we could force some recalcitrant theological, political and cultural foxes out of their holes. Your generosity in referring to me in this post as formidable foe is a very high compliment to me as you are a formidable represent of your point-of-view. Plus, as I've said over and over and over -- you're a better man than me. (I might be gaining on you a bit of late, but I remain far back in your rear view!)

You will either be glad or horrified to learn that I've been in the midst of my spiritual transformation over the past several months. I'm a seeker, if an un-orthodox one. The scriptures from our shared heritage promise that "if (we) seek, that we will find"...

As for Sunday, I will not be challenging accepted Baptist doctrine nor offending the delicate sensibilities of folks I love and care for some Pastors love their own congregations. I'll be bringing a gentle challenge for them to reach out and to strive to be as relevant to the community they serve as they seek to restore their former influence and standing in our little community.

I'm building the message around a Tony Campolo story about throwing a birthday party at a dinner at 3 AM for a prostitute. Now, I know you're know fan of Tony, but he is a member in good standing in the Orthodox Evangelical Protestant community.

As you are aware, there's a better chance that my presence in a Baptist church will change me than there is that my presence there will change them!

I'm trying to think about my post-tBlog blogging and will keep everyone posted as I decide a direction in which to go...

Be good!

Kurt

---

posted by: auntconi (reply)
post date: 11.19.08 (10:52 pm)

I will miss kurtmaddox as well!

And as I was reading these comments I was pleased to see that kurt checked in to say "hi" ~ imagine each of you using the other as a whetstone to keep your wits sharp! hmm, who woulda thought ~ :)

I hope I haven't lost my invite for coffee with you next time I am in the vicinity of your abode ~ like I said, I have a couple of nieces living in the area and if I make a trip south this winter I had hoped to stop by to make sure you are doing all right! and of course to give a (hug) to Skylar!
:)

---

posted by: PastorDave (reply)
post date: 11.20.08 (6:31 am)

Reply to: auntconi
Lose your invite? Never! If you really like coffee, and I mean really like coffee, then I'll take you to a place that is supposedly the best. I say "supposedly" because I'm not much of a coffee drinker, unless I'm extremely cold or preparing to drive all night. It's a ghastly tasting drink, IMHO.

Anybody that would bother to take the time to stop by my way would always be welcome to a sit down and some talk. I'll introduce you to my wife and three dogs, kids and grandaughter, cat, show you my church and we'll play a round or two of pool. No beer. Coffee, if you insist.

---

posted by: PastorDave (reply)
post date: 11.20.08 (6:34 am)

Reply to: sweetvampiress
So, you've been in this neighborhood before? I'm wondering if you and I have done much interacting? I think you've made a fine decision to return, and hope you enjoy the new bloggers and those of us who just will not go away, no matter how badly some of these folk would like.

---

posted by: PastorDave (reply)
post date: 11.20.08 (6:36 am)

Reply to: bawdy
kurt...intelligent? Gosh, I've never associated those two words!

Please, come on by, I would enjoy a good long visit.

Here's a good plan- I'll stop by your place, maybe stay a month or two, eat your food and watch your t.v. and basically be a constant and annoying presence the entire time. O.K.?

---

posted by: PastorDave (reply)
post date: 11.20.08 (6:39 am)

Reply to: Ladyg
Well, yeah, he's gone. But the last two days he's continued to periodically stop by. He'll bum a cigarette, a couple of dollars, chitchat about politics and religion and basically make a nuiscience (sp?) of himself. So, things haven't changed too much.

---

posted by: sweetvampiress (reply)
post date: 11.20.08 (6:39 am)

Reply to: PastorDave
I have been around here before :) I'm not sure if we interacted to much. I think you had just started on here just as I was leaving. Hint I make jewelery.

---

posted by: PastorDave (reply)
post date: 11.20.08 (6:43 am)

Reply to: OldSchool
Yes, as with you I am hoping for good folk to continually come along and make this place home. I'm a bit concerned by kurt's inference that he was not able to set up another blog- I'll have to check and see if t-blog is taking new people. As I've told you befire, I think you write a consistently good and high quality blog, a cut above the good-humored drivel of most of us. I hope your readership is strong, far beyond just our little community.

By the way, looks like the "new" Obama administration is shaping up to be Oldschool 80's material.

---

posted by: PastorDave (reply)
post date: 11.20.08 (7:18 am)

Reply to: Kurt
So, it's a Baptist church. Looking at the photo, it was difficult to discern. I was thinking United Methodist. However, I've seen a few older church buildings such as this one that have been "adopted" by more progressive/liberal congegations. So I was thinking this could well be a Unitarian church, of which I think you would probably be more aligned than a traditional SBC.

What to preach? I would think you would want to be honest with who you are and what you believe, which as we have discussed maybe a tad, makes the art of preaching a challenge. This congregation most likely believes Jesus to be the Son Of God and Savior of the world. They believe a born again experience to be essential. They are likely conservative in all of their social views. They believe the Bible to be the inspired, even inerrant Word of God. So I think you would most likely injure the congregation were you to share what you feel about these and other basic beliefs of they typical Baptist church.

As I see it, you've several options:
(1) Just forego what you believe, and preach a basic Biblical and Christian sermon. They'll walk away happy, and probably never know the difference. Of course, you will.

(2) Just be straight. Tell 'em what you think. It will be something they would never forget. And, likely, there will be a "searcher" such as yourself in the midst who will hear and forever be grateful that you have put them onto the path of perdition. Besides, about half the congregation will afterwards go out to eat at the local steak house, and never consider what you said, anyhow.

(3) Here's probably your best choice. Forego sticky matters of theology and ethics. Find something warm and fuzzy in the Sermon On The Mount, something safe and yet challenging about loving others, and stick with it. After all, loving others is at the heart of the message of Jesus, and you can do little wrong by such a focus. And, such is the general direction of the liberal and his sermon.

Hope it goes well.
Save your sermon, come on down and preach it for my congregation. I'd like to test my theory that most congregants do not really listen and likely cannot recall what was said from the pulpit, anyhow.

---

posted by: KurtMaddox (reply)
post date: 11.20.08 (9:53 am)

My sermon is built around throwing Birthday parties for prostitutes. That oughta wake 'em up and keep 'em interested for at least 10 of the 20 minutes. (Do you realize how difficult it is for me to keep it to 20 mintues?)

As for theology, you pay much more attention to "theology" than all but a scant minority of today's "Baptists". I follow the model of the founder, Yeshua bin Joseph, who faced His own "theological" challenges from the religious authorities of his day -- I tell stories and present parables.

Ethics? Now that's where I'm most aligned with Yeshua and find my greatest comfort as a speaker and throwing birthday parties for prostitutes is something you, me and Jesus can all get behind, isn't it?

Just pick a date and I'll be there in a jiffy! I am certain your assumptions about anyone remembering what is said in the pulpit past Sunday brunch is a pretty good hunch :-)

---

posted by: bawdy (reply)
post date: 11.20.08 (12:45 pm)

Reply to: PastorDave

Sure, come on by! I'll dust off the shackles in my basement in preparation.

Your Name:


Your Comment: