Terry Pruitt's Blog

I was hoping to be a form of Linux. I may have to get a copy of Slackware since my personality is Slackware. Which OS are You?

We shut down our room with our internet connection in order to paint. My wife and daughters have worked hard. I've tried to help during the evenings. My book during the evening has been a book by a post-modern man who makes a religious pilgrimage. He walks on a ancient road to Santiago. He spends a lot of time explaining that he is not a religious sort of guy, but he is none the less, taking a pilgrimage. One of the interesting points of the book is the fact that in the Middle Ages people on a pilgrimage had an international status. Pilgrims had special rights. They had special clothes which identified them as pilgrims. There were laws against impersonating a pilgrim. Today we take vacations, not pilgrimages. Vacations are about relaxation, pigrimages are about discovery and dedication. A book I read many years ago was Walk Across America . The author Peter Jenkins walked with a purpose of discovery. As he walked it was a discovery of his country. Peter Jenkins ...

In 1987 I was facing a decision to become a student pastor at a country church or re-enlist in the U.S. Army. The decision was very tough since I really wanted to become a pastor, and still do, but I just felt led of God away from that particular ministry. So I re-enlisted, not knowing just exactly what to do. The Army gave me a little bonus money for that decision. Sort of a consolation prize to myself I decided to buy a computer with that money. I had been using an Apple II at the library. I did some research and asked around about what type of computer was best for education. The answer resoundingly was Apple. I was also taking a course on computing for my degree program. It was an introduction to computing. It was a computer course on the computer. There was a lab assistant there who ran the place. When he was not watching the computer lab, he taught computers. Everything pointed to the type of computer that I wanted was an Apple. This decision started me down that pa...

Take the 100 Acre Personality Quiz! Hat Tip Rebecca Write My wife is Pooh.

Of course my title in tongue in cheek, so don't take it literally. The leadership in my church is called a Session. As Presbyterians we have an elder form of church government. As a group of elders, what is our job? There are many models of leadership that people bring into the church. Occationally the coach model is brought into the church. Ususally the leadership model comes from our employement. Teachers I find tend to lead through schedule and procedure. Those who work for the government tend to work off a policy manual. There is nothing wrong with schedules, procedures and policy manuals inherently. Some people who are used to writing policy, when reach a position of leadership in the church want to use that as a means of good leadership. However, when I look at the Biblical model of eldership, I don't think a policy manual should be the main activity. The main thing church leaders should know is God and scripture. Good decisions, including those in a policy ma...

Here are five of my favorite museums. My wife and I really like museums. 1. Walters Art Gallery 2. Dumbarton Oaks 3. Museum of The Alphebet 4. Gutenberg Museum 5. The Louvre Museum

Check out the Dawn Treader's posting on Three Great Questions . He is collecting different ideas about what are the issues facing our culture. He would appreciate your assistance.

What is a nation? What is a country? What is the state? What is the government? People define these different ways. My good friend the Jollyblogger has written another great article regarding the religious right, " Is This Land Our Land? ". In it he addresses several issues, one being can we have a Christian nation. Another is whether we had a Christian nation and some how it was stolen out from under us and now it has to be taken back. Warrior Terminology While I like a good, clean debate, I find myself more in agreement than disagreement with Jollyblogger's critic of those who want "to take back America". This type of rhetoric is used to inflame Christians who feel that they are in the minority. If Christians want to be salt and light in the culture, it is not because they are going to rule the culture but because Christians serve their fellow mankind. History Of The Nation I read several years ago The Light and the Glory -- by Peter Ma...

Check out the new blogger on the block and her reading list, Big Red 5

Yesterday I gave a mini reveiw of the new Spiderman 2 movie. Today I have to say that the Lego version of Spiderman is extremely funny. It is probably funnier if you have seen the live action movie before viewing the Lego version. For a little video clip, I give it 5 stars out of 5. It gets that for making me laugh aloud. The recreation of scenes from the movie is really what cracked me up. Hat Tip: Rebecca Writes .

My lovely bride gave 4 out of 5 stars to Spiderman 2 . I gave 4 stars also. The special effects are great and so is the character development. Well, great character development for a super hero movie at least. One of the themes is that Spiderman can not seem to get it right because he does not have a great sense of his purpose and who he is. While there is something to understanding one's purpose, not everyone has to have a high sense of purpose. It has taken a while for me to figure this out, some people are driven by their calling and other people are faithful to thier calling. I for one am more of a driven by my calling. It has taken a while for me to understand those who are less driven.

Joe Missionary has some interesting thoughts on the definition of a missionary. In the end he says that both home and foreign missionaries are good. He emphasizes that we should not put missionaries up on pedestal. I like his post and agree, especially on the issue that we should not create layered system of a Christian, a saved-n-sanctified Christian, a wholly sanctified, ....., ta-dah; THE MISSIONARY! This is true, however, the mandate to "make disciples of all nations" must not become usurped by an over summarization of what he said. While there is no difference in the individual soul of someone overseas and someone on the home mission field, there a sense when God is especially glorified when His gospel is spread through out the world. He is especially glorified when His name is spoken by every tribe, tongue and nation. This is not a more important ministry, but it is obedience to the specific call and will of God as expressed in the scripture. It is like the glo...

I took this demented personality test. I think it was called the Jenny Turpish Slapped Me personality test. It said I was.... Wackiness: 0/100 Rationality: 0/100 Constructiveness: 40/100 Leadership: 0/100 You are an SEDF--Sober Emotional Destructive Follower. This makes you an evil genius. You are extremely focused and difficult to distract from your tasks. With luck, you have learned to channel your energies into improving your intellect, rather than destroying the weak and unsuspecting. Your friends may find you remote and a hard nut to crack. Few of your peers know you very well--even those you have known a long time--because you have expert control of the face you put forth to the world. You prefer to observe, calculate, discern and decide. Your decisions are final, and your desire to be right is impenetrable. You are not to be messed with. You may explode.

Hat Tip: Rebecca Writes This coming Wednesday (7-14) is the next Christian Carnival, and will be hosted at From the Anchor Hold. If you have a blog, this will be a great way to get read, and possibly pick up readers in the process or highlight your favorite post from the past week. To enter is simple. First, you post should be of a Christian nature, but this does not exclude posts that are political (or otherwise) in nature from a Christian point of view. Secondly please send only one post dated since the last Christian Carnival. (7-7 or after) Then, do the following: email Karen Marie at kmknapp@execpc.com Please put "Christian Carnival submission" in the subject line --- I don't have a good spam filter and don't want to lose any of you to mass spam deletion! And provide the following: Title of your Blog URL of your Blog Title of your post URL linking to that post Description of the post Cut off date is Tuesday 13 July at 9 p.m. Central Da...

The following is a Sunday School lesson I wrote. The College aged audience wanted to study depression. Their topic, not mine. Polling the group, the most troubling issues they faced was relationships. So King Saul meets Judas the betrayer in this tongue in cheek play. Scripture Lesson: Matthew 26:1-5, 14-16; 27:1-10 1 Samuel 18:6-9; 19:1-10 Main Idea: Some of the most poignant conflicts in life are from those who are supposed to be on our side; both those who we are supposed to be supported by or to whom we are giving our support. A Reader's Theater About Depression (Two patients at a mental hospital, Judas and Saul, go out under the tree to smoke. They strike up a casual conversation to pass the time as they puff on their cigarettes.) Saul: Hello. I am Saul. Judas: How's it goin'? I'm Judas. ... (mutters to himself.) Why do they have to put this smoke area all the way out here? (Looking into his cigarette pack he sees that ...

Recent History Of Religious Strife In America In the early half of the 1900s, the church in America had a number of denominations. The ideas of liberal Christianity were in many if not most mainline denominations. Labels to describe those inside and outside the movement developed. The more liberal camp(s) were called modernist, liberal or later neo-orthodox. Those in the more conservative camps are divided into the fundamentalists or evangelicals. At the risk of oversimplification, this posting will NOT attempt to distinguish too much between all the variants but generalize into two segments; liberal and conservative. By conservative I do not mean political conservatives, but those who would attempt to retain the basics of the faith. In the early part of the 20th century the liberal type of Christianity did not attempt to establish new denominations or congregations, but mostly grew within the mainline denominations. The ensuing debate between liberal Christianity with mo...

Years ago I read the book Lessons of History by Will and Ariel Durant. They talked about in one chapter that liberals are those who have new ideas and conservatives are those who stand for the old ideas and test the new ones. In a sense, both are necessary. So an innovator is a liberal, for instance Newt Gingrich is an innovator, though he be right wing in his political persuasion. Also, James Dobson and Jerry Falwell are actually innovators, not conservatives. In the 1980's when the conservative Christian community started getting involved in politics, they were innovators. (Politically conservative that is.) Especially in the fundamentalists circles, Jerry Falwell was a real liberal. He was actually trying to be a part of the process in America. With his Fundamentalist style, he thought he would become a part of the solution. America said no by and large. His innovation was by and large a failure. Another segment of the conservative Christian political movement in...

Have you ever read one magazine for about 15-16 months to find that it is repeating itself? I love to read magazines. Okay, sometimes I'm ashamed, I go off and buy a secret issue of, you guessed it; Linux Journal . Some of the articles are a little over my head, but cool, I'm in there with the real geeks.....or am I? While there are many exceptions to what I'm about to say, I think people often buy magazines for the sake of bolstering their image to themselves. Sort of like driving a SUV to say that your a big outdoor type of guy, even though you have not been camping, fishing, boating or off the Interstate High way in a significant way in a couple of years. The expense and being seen in the rugged vehicle tells not only the world who the guy behind the wheele is, but also is pretty convincing to one's self. In regard to magazines, I see people reading magazines that does not quite fit what they do. Guys who don't work out reading exercise magazines, gals wh...

In my own family, my grandma Beulah is the kindest, most gentle, nicests, and godly matriarch. She is the example of a Christian to me. In fact, women were the real leaders in my church growing up. A few years ago the church Session on which I sit had to make a decision. Do we allow women to teach Sunday School? Our former pastor took the position that the teaching excluded by 1 Tim 2:11-15 was that of the pulpit ministry. Anything else like Sunday School teacher or small group leaders was okay in his opinion. He felt that those positions did not have the same authority as the pulpit. A situation came about that a woman started leading a video series as a Sunday School lesson. That is when we got a letter from one of the godly elderly women of our congregation. She explained kindly and gently that we should not be allowing this. The Session started discussing what we believed was the Biblical position. I read on my own the following books: Women in Ministry:...

Again, my good friend and pal the Jollyblogger is discussing Christian strategy for influence in the Western culture in his posting What We've Lost . I agree with almost everything in his posting. Two exceptions I would take. 1.) I'm not sure the European common man can not be won. Having lived in Europe, it is a strange mixed bag. Europe is not necessarily its academic institutions. Europeans as a whole have a better liberal arts tradition. Their is an amazing amount of good, Bible beleiving Christians there. The institutions are as you say, lacking in a Christian worldveiw. (Oh by the way, Sweden has an offical state church . We may disdain it, pun intended, but there is a tie between church and state.) But back on topic, it will take a supernatural work of God, but Europe is not a lost cause. With God all things are possible. Having said all that, Os is right about the state of the Western civilization as a whole; the common man in America is the last bas...

By the way, I just called Focus On The Family. I let them know that publishing Mr. Moore's home address might actually cause people to harrass him or do more. They simply said that was not their intent. They gave a well formed answer but did not back down from their position, which is what I expected.

My good friend and pal the Jollyblogger has written an insightful piece on the recent Focus On The Family newsletter which encouraged a grassroots effort against the recent Michael Moore movie, Fahrenheit 9/11. Some food for thought: 1. Political activism seemed to be a panacea for Christians in the 1980's to solve the irrelevance that the church felt. In a sense, we did not know how to be a part of public dialogs. (By the way blogging is a part of public dialog.) We were sloppy at it. When we lost we did not know how to be a gentleman or a lady and loose graciously. Without the ability to loose graciously we are left with tyranny, even if its done by the "good guys". However, I'm not against political activism, but its not the job of the church. The job of the church in context of the nation is lead it in the spiritual formation of the people, individual and corporate. In other terminology, disciple the nation. But as citizens of our nation, Chris...

Thanks to Rebecca Writes who clued me into the Christian Carnival hosted by Messy Christian. I had read about the Christian Carnival but not really understood what it was all about. Oh by the way, Messy Christian claims to be disorganized, I think she is just comfortable with loose ends. She also has a great blog.

Nothing about the ceiling fan here, instead I wanted to highlight the addition of the Beltway Bloggers and The Truth Laid Bear (TTLB).

Looking at the Emerging Church, often what I see is that the Emerging Church is both an expression of identity and resistance to an over simplified identity. What is a person? At our essence, are we merely genetic material? Are we the product of our own choices? Can we really choose to be anything we want to be? Can I choose to be an eighteenth century traveling Dutch minstrels who sings German songs in the Italian countryside? (No, primarily because I have a hard time carrying a tune without some accompaniment. The German language thing I could work on. And time travel does not seem to be working out either.) In reality my context does dictate some of my identity and I have choices on how to play the proverbial cards I have been dealt. It seems to me that the Emerging Church have become quite competent at being creative at not being normal. In other words, normally they attempt to not be normal. Demographic segment has become a major issue that those associated with the Emer...

Just got back from vacation. On vacation I visited Tangier Island, VA. To get there we took the ferry from Crisfield, MD. On the way back from the Island one couple noted how neat and clean the homes and yards were. The couple had visited Smith Island and said there were a lot of junk cars and things. I suppose disposal of items would be problematic with no land fill. But the couple attributed the cleanness of Tangier to the religious nature of the community. The idea that a people's Christian morals could make a difference visibly in a community intrigued me.

I one time asked someone if they had a book on urban ministry . I was taking a course on urban ministry and was required to read a certain number of pages. It was funny that the person thought I was using the phrase as a euphemism for Afro-American ministry. Perhaps he was thinking of Tony Evans ' radio show, the Urban Alternative, which by the way I recommend. But what I really meant was a book about ministry in the city. The city is where most people live today, but we are resistant to embrace the city. New Yorkers are probably the only people I see saying they love their city. Movies like "You've Got Mail" can idealize New York, but Dallas is idealized by living several miles away on a big ranch. By the way, a lot of people have contrasted the suburban and urban experience. I've come to the conclusion that there is no need to do so. America has a romance with the outdoors, but really lives in the city. Our lives are disconnected from our idealized li...