good word

A prof got me thinking about this today:

In John 20:21 Jesus says, "As my Father has sent me, I am sending you."

So, the question is how far is it from heaven to Bethlehem, Earth? How far was Jesus sent? This, then, moves me to wonder how it is that the church can keep building fortresses and inviting people in. If that is how Christ practiced ministry, he would have simply continued to shout to us from heaven; things would have been left at the law. He was sent, though, and he came.

Then I should go too, right? What does that mean for a church that's institutional? How does it learn to go again? How does it learn to become relevant again ... or better yet ... how does it become incarnate to the world?

I think I'll leave it at that for now - just a lot of questions.

bubba

bubba
Originally uploaded by crotty.

I don't know how to spell his name, but I can sure tell you what it's like to be in his crosshairs. frightening.

Jury Duty

I'm off to jury duty ... let the good times roll.

Easter

First, Happy Easter.

Now a thought:
Mary clung to Jesus after he called her name. Then she ran from the tomb to tell those that she knew his resurrection would mean the most to crying, "I have seen the Lord!"

Today, I said, "that sure was an off video they opened the service with, but the music was great."

I'm pretty sure Mary was closer to the mark.

Don't get me wrong, I love that the Lord is risen. I rejoice, but I am sometimes so petty in the midst of it.

Note to Cory: Thanks.

christ risen

christ risen
Originally uploaded by crotty.

What does it mean to you?

Red Rock Canyon State Park

Red Rock Canyon State Park
Originally uploaded by crotty.

We camped in the desert last weekend. At least the rain was worth something; The desert is awesome when it blooms.

Well worth a visit.

For those of you that check out Corey's site, this is nothing new. For those of you that don't, you need to check this out.

Cat Sleepin

Cat Sleepin
Originally uploaded by crotty.

Yes - we have a cat.
No - it does not sleep normally.

Yes - I wish I was asleep.

Cali Driving

Since moving to California I have developed two theories about California drivers.
First, I believe that motorists in this state are largely encouraged to ignore their turn signals.
Second, it appears to be that the speed limit is considered to be more of an average than a limit. So, if you spend the morning stuck in traffic, you get to spend the remainder of the day driving like a bat-out-of-hell to bring that average back up. Right?

Things I'm not

In the off chance that you Google "Jeff Crotty" to find out a bit about me ...

No, that's not my phone number, and no I was not recently hired as the general manager for Legends by Notre Dame Food Services.

No, I have not been recently certified as a DARE Mentor.

And, no, I am not a Junior Champion at the Redwood Empire Golf and Country Club.

or am I?

It's not just hindsight that's 20/20

"In the crisis of the world the church becomes aware of its own crisis: not that merely of a weak and responsible institution but of one which is threatened with destruction. It is true ... that the church will probably survive in some form in any circumstances, and that the real question is whether it will survive as a reliable witness to the Christian faith. Yet it is also true that the larger question receives part of its urgency from the threat of extinction. It was when Israel's life as a nation was in danger that the prophets came to understand the more dire peril to Israel as a people of God ...

"Yet a society based, as the church has been, upon the conviction that to seek life is to lose it, must discover the fallacy in any attempt merely to live for the sake of living ... The church then realizes that the important question is not how to save its life but rather how to keep its soul, how to face loss, impoverishment, and even death without surrendering its self, its work, and its service.

"From the point of view of civilization the question of the church seems often to be regarded as that of an institution which has failed to adjust itself to the world and which is making desperate efforts to overcome its maladjustments. The problem it presents is that of a conservative organization which has not kept abreast of the times, which has remained medieval while the world grows modern, dogmatic while civilization was becoming scientific; which is individualistic in a collectiveist period and theological in a time of humanism ...

"It is true also, within certain limits, that failure to adjust results in decay as is evident in all mere traditionalism .... The failure of traditionalism, moreover, is less in its lack of adjustment to changing conditions than in the confusion of the spirit with the letter and in blindness to the actual shift of attention from the meaning to symbol that has taken place within the church.

"In the faith of the church, the problem is not one of adjustment to the changing, relative, and temporal elements in civilization but rather one of constant adjustment, amid these changing things to the eternal.

"WHAT IS ENDANGERED in the church is the secular elements: its prestige as a social institution, its power as a political agency, its endowment as a foster-child of nation or of class. And this very peril indicates that the church has adjusted itself too much rather than too little to the world in which it lives." - H. Richard Niebuhr (1935)

bach party

bach party
Originally uploaded by crotty.

Is there a better sight to behold at your bachelor party? Really? 5 points of you can name the man behind the smoke.

General Store

General Store
Originally uploaded by crotty.

I'm still figuring this out, but I figure I can still post some things while I'm at it. On that note, here's something you don't see much any more in a Wal-Mart world.

Huge Lemon

Huge Lemon
Originally uploaded by crotty.

These are easily the biggest lemons that I've ever seen and they grow in our yard. So, if you're in the market for a novelty gift of the fruit sort and if they are in season, I'd be happy to send you one.

one step

I really have no idea what I'm doing, but I'm learning. If any of you blog-savvy folks have suggestions for a starter, please suggest away.