I almost canceled my subscription to Vermont Life magazine. The articles have consistently been excellent, but the layout was simply horrendous, making it next to impossible to read a whole article. One page may have had some pictures and a little text, and then the following pages were a blitz of ads with little bits of text clinging to 1/3 of the page, nearly falling into the gap in between the pages.
You know it’s bad when the state magazine has a worse layout than the town shopping guide. I felt like I had an advertising index with a pretty cover.
Seeing older issues only exacerbated the problem. In the good old days the articles were given full layouts with beautiful illustrations and pictures. The text ambled on throughout the following pages, as if placing all of an article together was an art practiced by the ancients, but lost to our modern times of advertising. Sure there may have been ads, but the content of the magazine won out. Such has not been the case of late.
And then the Winter 2007 issue arrived today. The new editor must have given the entire magazine an overhaul. The same gaudy ads were still in place, but the articles and photographs have been given a fresh look. The content is once again the king, and the words of the articles appear on consecutive pages. I can’t believe Vermont Life let things get to the point that I am excited about something so basic, so common sense.
I highly recommend picking up a copy of the magazine if you have a chance. The stories are always fascinating, taking a peek into small town life in Vermont, even if the southern part of the state is nearly nonexistent in its pages. I’ll forgive that sin.
It would seem that Vermont Life has rediscovered its roots. I will no doubt read through it rather quickly now that I don’t have to piece together the gig saw puzzle of articles. The article scavenger hunt days are over!!!
Technorati Tags: vermont - vermont+life
I work at a nonprofit organization on the side of a mountain, a fairly large mountain for Vermont. It’s roughly 3,800 feet or so high, and therefore the weather can be a bit different. In the winter we’ll have pelting snow, while my home in the river valley 30 minutes away has sloppy, sploshes of rain.
You wouldn’t believe it, but yesterday we began the day with dark dreary rain clouds, heavy downpours, late morning sunshine, and then a mix of rain and sleet in the afternoon. By the time I went home the clouds were pushing away and the sun was peeking through again.
In one day we had Spring, Fall, and Winter. In fact, we had all of those seasons within a few hours.
Technorati Tags: vermont - arlington+vermont
Lately Willow Creek has talked about Christians learning how to be “self-feeding.” The premise is that as Christians grow in the Lord, they are studying the Bible and taking responsibility for their learning. The problem is that personal Bible study and even much of the teaching in church can have the adverse effect of fattening us up with knowledge.
First of all, when I think of Christians who are self-feeding, I immediately think of a person studying the Bible by himself/herself. Theology is first of all a practice for the whole church to do together, and so even the theological conclusions of our personal study should be shared with other Christians, fellow bloggers, or some other gathering of friends and fellow believers.
And even if we proceed to become self-feeding, there is also a word of caution about feeding in general. I know that many Christians choose churches based on whether or not they are “fed” good teachings. This is well and good provided that the meal is not the main event.
Whether or not the former Attorney General believes America is actually torturing detainees, Deitrich Bonhoeffer, a man who certainly encountered his fair share or torture after penning these words, has some harsh words for us regarding the use of this practice:
“Torture is, in any case, generally an ineffectual means for discovering the truth; though, of course, this argument can have force only in cases where it is really the truth that is being sought for. But, quite apart from that, any physical torture inflicts the most extreme dishonour on the human being, and consequently engenders an intense hatred and the natural bodily impulse to restore this wounded honour by the application of bodily force. Bodily dishonour seeks to avenge itself on the body of the infamous tormentor. In this way the violation of man’s bodily freedom once again destroys the foundations of society” (Ethics 183).
In other words, the use of the torture by the CIA, Justice Department, and any other branch of the US government actually undermines the premise under which such barbarity is justified: we are making America safe. In actuality, we are simply feeding the fire, fanning the flames, and justifying morally reprehensible actions.
May we repent.
May God forgive us.
I’ve been in a confessing mood lately. So here we go again.
I used to be very, very impressed with Willow Creek Community Church. Really. I thought they had it all figured out, especially the bit about being an Acts 2 kind of church. Throughout Willow’s literature it seems that being an Acts 2 kind of church specifically relates to verses 41, 42, and 46. See their membership information for the details.
What could be better than devotion to sound teaching, fellowship, communion, and prayer. That sounds like all the church could ask for.
Or is it? Is Willow Creak just Acts 2-ish?
I don’t know why I’ve always missed this, but Acts 2:43 tacks on a few things that most churches today either ignore or abuse horribly: “Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles.” Well, maybe we are filled with awe at the sound systems or multimedia presentations, but I think it’s safe to say we are lacking in the awe department.
Being an “Acts 2″ church means a lot more than meeting and teaching, there is an implication of not only meeting God (the awe part) but experiencing his freedom and power. The down side of this is that churches who believe in the present power of God can abuse it, harnessing it for their own agendas. That doesn’t sound like an Acts 2-ish idea.
While I warm up to the Kingdom of God as the focus of Jesus and of the Gospel (in short, Jesus is Lord), I find more and more room for not only Kingdom-teaching but also Kingdom-action: the miracles and signs. I understand that miracles are disputed by some stodgy theologians and some churches, but let’s pretend for a moment that God can still do everything the Bible claims he is capable of.
In Acts 2:43 there are wonders and miraculous signs, and after reading about tongues of fire and such, the continued display of God’s power must have been pretty impressive. Not only were there most likely miracles, but there must have been signs that connected with the message, much like the signs in the Gospel of John.
And if we can pretend a while longer that signs and miracles can happen, it may help in our “imaginary world” to keep in mind that miracles are not sprinkled around haphazardly like pixy dust. There is a divine strategy at work that we must join. God is using miracles and signs to not only declare the presence of his rule on earth, he is connecting it with the teaching and ministry of the church. Perhaps many could stomach the thought of miracles if they strengthened this connection with teaching and ministry.
As if things aren’t murky enough then about what an Acts 2-ish church should be, Willow Creek found out that gathering Christians together for teaching, or in their words “participation,” does not always a growing disciple make. Check it out here.
Whenever I try something new, you can bet it will take 2-3 times longer than it probably should. Such was the case today when I attempted and pretty much succeeded to install a new storm door in our front entry.
I have a few things working against me:
Clearing the garage for Julie’s car is a project on the horizon for us, and so the large storm door had to be removed from storage and stuck in its proper place. I really wasn’t looking forward to this, especially with a high of 40 degrees and high winds…
I started off by glancing at the directions and screwing in the top part. It felt good to just pop something in to the door frame. I felt like I was getting somewhere. Step two almost stopped the whole enterprise cold.
I needed to put the hinged part of the door frame onto the door. It is essential to make sure the door can actually open. I looked and looked at the diagrams and the door and I just couldn’t figure out how it was going to work. Even when I had the hinge system figured out, none of the holes lined up as the directions said they would.
Keep in mind, I have every confidence in my ability to mess things up. I could not believe that the directions were wrong. I almost gave up. Finally I just drilled the holes, chopped off the extra door frame, and slapped it all together. It worked fine, the directions were wrong. I won.
Actually getting the door in place was another challenge by myself. I used a cinder block and chunks of wood to prop it into place, furiously trying to drill holes with screws that didn’t like boring into wood. Though things continued to go slow, I eventually got the door attached with the frame in relatively good shape. I even had the latch side spaced out correctly with some ingenious use of wood scraps.
At that point I was ready to be done, but I still needed to drill holes (with the bits I had that were too small) for the latch and door knob assembly. While doing this there were three separate occasions when the door closed with the partially assembled latch and I had to spend 5 or 10 minutes opening the door.
When I could safely open and close the door, I gave up. The spring that closes the door will have to wait. I also couldn’t line up the metal plate that the latch goes into. Oh, and that piece I screwed in at the beginning? I should have measured first. The door now has a 1 1/2 inch gap between the threshold and the weather stripping.
All of that will have to wait until next weekend, further delaying the garage project. Sigh.
::IN A MIRROR DIMLY::
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