Preparation for Christmas means anticipation, which is, of course, the spirit of Advent. Right around this time I start to get all sorts of kitsch e-mails about Christmas. You know them, you probably see them every year: animated “Christmas cards” with music, Santa jokes, lists of fractured Christmas hymns titles, etc. Sometimes there’s so much of it that at one point my response is ho-hum and bah-humbug. But it’s early in the season and they’re just starting to come in. My sister sent me this version of “fractured hymn titles,” and it gave me a chuckle. We haven’t got enough blog entries under the “humor” category, and that’s a shame. So, here, in jolly anticipation, are “Christmas Carols for the Psychologically Challenged”:

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What would ministry be without a good joke from time to time? I forgot where I found this one, but I thought it was pretty good. I hope it will give you a chuckle for the day.

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Despite the serious and lofty education most of us clergy receive in seminary (theology, Greek, Hebrew, Latin, hermeneutics, philosophy, etc.) ministry has, decidedly, a pragmatic skills component to it. As one person put it, you have to “know stuff” (and she wasn’t referring to “book learnin’”). Pity the congregational minister who doesn’t develop skills to grease the rails of ministry in the real world. To quote Napoleon Dynamite, “You know, like nunchuck skills, bowhunting skills, computer hacking skills… Girls only want boyfriends who have great skills.”

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This is an amusing and thoughtful prayer reflection that I’ve used to open my Fall teacher training workshops. I hope you enjoy it!

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I often tell people that I’ve never had a bad job, and I can say that honestly. I even enjoyed my years in parish ministry, due in great part to having landed in a great congregation. Although pastoral ministry remains one of the most unique and challenging jobs today (and according to the National Opinion Research Center it is a job that reports a higher level of satisfaction than more “prestigious” careers), like most any job is has its plusses and minuses.

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Where do we draw the line?

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I had an insurance salesman I worked with for a few years who always asked the question, “What’s your net worth?” I never had that information at my fingertips and so was never prepared to answer. He always seemed surprised that I didn’t know my “net worth” off the top of my head. And I was always annoyed that he seemed to think that was an important indicator of . . . well, something. While I find some people’s point of reference as to what constitutes what is of worth odd or off-putting, I remind myself of the axiom dear to the hearts of those with a penchant for educational assessment and psychometric experimentation that everything exists in a certain amount, and, therefore, can be measured.

So, I just found out that I’m worth $4490.00 . . . dead!

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Parody is a touchy art. Especially when it comes to religious parody—one risks crossing the thin line between humor and the sacrilegious. I thought this was kinda funny. If it offends you please take responsibility for your own sensitivity and keep it to yourself.

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Many years ago, I developed a relationship with an older church member who resided in a local Baptist retirement community. This friend taught me how to make kitchen clocks using skillets. One of the first questions he asked was, “How do we find the center of the skillet?” Well, my mathematical aptitude on that issue was on the level of throwing darts at a target—hoping that I would come close. After I was told how it should be done, he taught me how to drill the skillet, how to protect it from rust, how to find the proper positions of the numbers, how to paint it, how to make many clocks in a production line, etc.

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If you would like to read a humorous piece on the introduction of the new iPhone check this out.  My friend, Rich Melheim, put this link on his blog which is a great resource for Christian Educators.