Author: Wick

You may be thinking in a panic recently, “oh wait, I’m going to be expected to vote for MORE than just the president on November 4th!!??” Like many Americans, you may be tempted to simply show up, and vote for the “lesser offices” based on who’s name rhymes with silly words, or who’s commercial you can vaguely remember, or even *gasp* what party they represent, hoping your grandma’s e-mail was right.

In order to combat that event from happening, I wanted to give you a quick summary of places you can find more information on what you’ll want to know that day.

#1 – Sample Ballot – (or Sample for Decatur Residents) Includes most of the main offices that will be up for a vote in your area. This link is specifically for IL residents, but if you’re from elsewhere, simply select a different state from the drop down menu. Give them your friends address if you’re afraid of being stalked, and you’ll be given a sample ballot, with buttons to click to learn more about each office, candidate, and public action up for a vote. Or a similar site, but no sample ballot here – Vote Smart.

#2 – Who’s Running – Very similar to the above site, but they don’t actually tell you what District you’re in according to your address. But just another site to learn about the candidates/issues/etc.

#3 – The Official Site – For Illinoisans only. It appears to be fancier, but from what I’ve tried it’s not much. Funny, it’s the actual site given to us by our government. God bless ’em. Still, if you know exactly what you’re looking for, it may prove worth a read. Unless you’re a part of the 18th Congress like me…apparently not worth providing info for just yet.

Seriously readers, take a few moments over the next several weeks. Shut off the TV late at night when you KNOW you’re just flippin’ to pass the time. Get together with your spouse, or a friend, and just spend a few minutes looking through some of these other offices/issues up for a vote. You’ll be glad you did, and you’ll earn your right to be proud or upset at the officials as our journey as citizen’s continue…

ps. One issue that seems important to IL in particular is that of the Constitutional Convention. There are plenty of sites saying “YES” to it, you can check them out. And to be fair, one of a few articles I could find saying “NO” to it. (seriously, why don’t they make cool websites like the “YES” people?)

…and especially as pastors, and people who care how our churches are viewed…..it could be a very important post for us to be aware of. Thanks to the Friendly Atheist for this post.

The language could use some censorship, but check it out….

A portion:

“Or maybe they don’t care about reaching people like me (atheists). Maybe they just want to bring in more Christians — those who go to competing churches. But I would hope those Christians are also not swayed by the weeds in the parking lot instead of what the church says and does.

I’ve been inside many churches that were gorgeous buildings, inside and out. The people I met when I visited were kind and sweet. The whole sermon was like a wonderful Broadway show. The performances was incredible. And, yes, the bathrooms were very nice as well.”

Some good points throughout the article. Many, many things in our church will affect atmosphere, and unfortunately some people will choose/not choose our church based on that. Based on how the church appeals to their newborn/toddler/child/teen/college kid/themselves/their senior parents/etc. Even in context of youth ministry, where the desire to be everything the teens want you to be exists.

But our foundation, our source, our life – what we speak AND what we live as a community, goes much further than any “secret church shopper” could ever discover. And that is NOT an excuse to do ministry poorly….it’s a calling to be the Church God enables and calls us to be.

May our lives, and the life of our church embody the prayer Jesus taught his disciples…

The past few weeks – if you’ve owned a TV, gotten the newspaper, or even accessed the internet; it doesn’t guarantee you’ve seen much news. Then again, I guess that was true before recently anyways. News is what they tell us, and lately that means politics, the economy, and smearing those who disagree with you on those issues.

But if you can sift through what’s being pushed, you see other things. It’s said that you can gauge things about society/culture by what they’re paying/not paying to do. Not sure how good of a gauge that is, and what exactly it’s checking, but it can probably tell us something.

In this instance, I thought it was interesting that not only for one week, but for TWO weeks, the TOP GROSSING movie in theaters for a weekend was the mindless childrens’ flick, “Beverly Hills Chihuahua”.

Maybe our culture is beginning to see the trends in fashionable dog-owners, who are able to keep rat-like versions of canines in their purses and carry-on bags. Or maybe it’s how stinkin’ hillarious George Lopez is. Perhaps just the fantasy that our dogs have any thoughts at all, more than “eat this, pee here, chew this, don’t eat that again”.

But I think I know what it is. Just look at your local movie listings to see what’s playing in theaters right now.

You and I are most likely adults. We’ve been listening to what the news, and our bank accounts tell us. And they both tell us this: right now is no time to go out and spend $9 to stare at a screen for 2 hours, pay $5 for a drink, and $5 more for some popcorn. Now is a good time to save money, and prepare to live off less than we currently enjoy.

So who goes to see a movie? The top two movies from this weekend explain. Number 2 in the box office was the new, low-budget (and low intellect) thriller “Quarantine”. If you don’t think a lot about life in general, you’ll probably enjoy that movie. Number 1 in the box office was the only kids movie in theaters right now.

We all know, even in the toughest of times, even with bad credit debt, and way past bed time….when our kids give us “that look”, it’s really hard to say no. The movie is most likely not very good at all, and the critics seem to say that. But it has great timing.

For now…. HULU it is. 🙂