YOU JOINED ANOTHER CHURCH
In mid-February 2020 I came in and found messages on my voicemail. There was a message from you, saying "Hey ______, I wanted to talk, and tell you about the church I've joined. I joined a church. It's called the Redem*tion church."
I understand thereby, that you'd like to "talk about" it, and since we haven't chatted of late, I thought I'd do some musing right here, just in case you do make it in here someday.
I don't have a writing plan, nor anything all ready to say, so I'll just "wing it." But the very first thoughts that I had upon hearing your voicemail about joining another church, just happened to be imagery of a fellow having moved from one island to another island, and so I took the time to create you a little "islands" graphic to accompany this page.
Don't make too much of me thinking of islands; I really don't (consciously) have any "profound" thoughts attached to it, it's just some pictures and thinking that went through my head. I thought, even if it's mere "chit chat," why not share it?
You know that thoughts and images flit through the mind in a nono-second. It's not like I spent time with these thoughts. There was no "pondering" any "islands" concept. But immediately upon hearing that you've joined another church, as I mentioned above, I thought of getting a message from a fellow, informing me that he has moved from one island that he was previously on, to a different one.
Laugh with me, I hope you'll get a kick out of this, but what flashed though my mind, lightning quick, without any pondering or any sober reflection whatsoever, was that this fellow had previously been on an island where there were savage cannibals, and his life was in peril every moment of the day.
There was no orderly "sequence" or "progression" in orderly steps to this, whatsoever. Don't think that in my thinking it was going, first "this" and next "this" and then on to "this." No such thing. It was really more like one picture of existing life, and geography that flashed all at once, like a Polaroid snapshot, or like when someone you know comes to your mind, and you have a formed picture of how you think of their life and circumstances. It does not "progress" in motion through stages. It's more like you have a "summary" picture of that person's status or state or their "setting" in their circumstances. That's what I mean by "like a Polaroid snapshot." Well this is what the "picture" was: This fellow had once been on that island with cannibals, and the plain fact was, he really needed to get off that island. Pardon me for how kooky my thought was. I pictured there were two or three or several other islands out there, that a person might manage to "get to" to be away from the cannibals. One of those "available" islands that flashed through my mind was of this nature: It was inhabited by raucus rowdy violent pirates. Picture maybe from movies you've seen a band of cut-throat pirates always fighting and drunk on rum, kind of like "bar fights" always going on, and all kinds of skullduggery, mischief, gambling, cheating, and, fights and fights and fights. In such an environment the average Joe might be in danger at all times, but by anyone's measure, a stay on that island was better than "cannibal island." It flashed though my mind that there was yet another island available out there, and life on this one was one of intense discipline, rigour and hardship, hard to describe, but if you know anything about the French Foreign Legion in the nineteenth century, or better yet, maybe life on a prison island, where the guards rule over the prison population with an iron fist, where everyone is kept under the boot. "If you know what's good for you," you'll snap to attention first thing in the AM, run laps "bootcamp style," eat when ordered to, sit, stand, run when ordered to, and your every 24 hour day is a driven merciless regimen. But hey, just like the dangerous pirate island, this "bootcamp" island sure beats "cannibal island."
As I said, it flashed through in a second and was over. Gone. It was only upon setting about writing this page for you that because I thought of mentioning it (or merely of starting this page with it) that it occurred to me to attach any discussion to it. Even as I type this line, I can't really think of any purpose in it beyond that since it's been started, it's just sensible "writing" to round it out with some usable thoughts, or at least some readable text.
The first thing besides flashing on those islands that "occurred" to me after listening to your voicemail, was what you did NOT tell me. I do understand that voicemail or answering machine is not the WAY to convey any substantive chat, so I don't mean that you should have told me more. No, I just mean I was aware of what I yet did not know from your brief message. A person could "read more meaning into" "I've joined a church" than what you intended to communicate. One could assume more radical changes to the status quo than there really are. If we tend toward "minimizing" the "meaning" of your message, it could conceivably mean no more than that you've taken up regularly "visiting" or "attending" services there, without really any official change of status in association with your former "venues." You have told me in the past about "cutting back" attending those other venues (one of them, trimmed to a couple of times a year, and the other about once a month, or was it like every six weeks or so?). You might be telling me that the Redem*tion church is just going to fill in those gaps. On the other hand, I reminded myself that you and I had a couple of very pointed and stark discussions about what church-going Christians out there think concerning these words "joining" and "membership." I told you that in their thinking and opinions, you or anyone "visiting" a hundred times or even "attending" 30 services in a row, does NOT make a person a "member" of a local church; that, to satisfy them, there must be an actual official "joining" of said church. Traditionally there is some gesture made of officially "receiving" you into the church's membership. What I'm saying is, that since we did have that discussion, it occurred to me upon hearing your voicemail message, in which you clearly used the word "joined," that you could be expecting me to understand it that ("official") way. But the thing is, I really can't "assume." I'll wait for you to spell it out for me.
Now regarding Redem*tion church itself: In case this webpage takes the place of us having a "live" discussion, I should say some things that I would remind you of if we were on the phone: You mentioned Redem*tion church and Ron Carp*nter to me before. By the way, the reason for the asterixes (*) in the words is that this whole website has been written in such a way as to avoid being swept up in a search by people using Goo*le or other search engines with search words and search terms pertinent to "our" world ("Lat*er Rain, "Thir* Wave, "Aposto*ic/Prop*etic, et al). Actually these web pages are written in such a way that they do not name people or groups "with whom we have to do." I mean, if you and I once both attended Stumbledoofus University, and both sat under Professor Bilgewater, I will write those words in this website as "Stumbl*doofus" and "Bilg*water" so those out there on the planet interested in Stumbledoofus or Bilgewater won't have this website come up in their Goo*le searches using those words. See? So it is, concerning people you and I know in common, and so it is now, even with Redem*tion church and Ron Carp*nter. With that said, to resume, you mentioned Redem*tion church and Ron Carp*nter to me, way back, as well as Adam Be*nal and Jub*lee and a number of other ministers and churches or ministries. Again, I am careful throughout this website as to "how" or even "if" I "discuss" any actual "pertinent" "persons of interest." I deliberately keep this website "innocuous" even to the point of "bland" or even "neuter."
First of all I was years ago aware of Di*k Be*nal & Jub*lee. So I knew a bit. But now in the "present" (since May 2018) all of these ministry names have come up in our conversations. Some time back, after one of our conversations, I did some Go*gling & YouT*bing of ministries mentioned, and found myself getting rather apprised of Redem*tion and Ron Carp*nter. That's what I wanted to say here: By the time your voicemail came (mid-Feb) I was already pretty well underway acquainting myself with Redem*tion and Ron Carp*nter.
I should say something as to what I found myself expecting after your voicemail: You may find this "familiar-sounding": You may recall conversations between us back in 2018 in which I expressed frustration or consternation over your habit of asking me (regarding various ministers or teachers or public speakers out there) what I think of this one, and what I think of that one. You may recall me being particularly at a loss and even struck dumb when you'd exclaim to me that this one or that one is a "great man of God!" and demand to know of me, "Don't YOU think so?" I'd be paralyzed. What is a person to do when hit with such a question as that? The way you ask it, just about demands that I praise that "celebrity" you've just applauded. That awkward situation happened repeatedly, until finally at one point I blurted out, "Your Name! I cannot respond to that! What in the world do you expect me to say? You put me in a bind: I must either join you and say 'Oh YES, I too think he's a great man of God!' or else I have to say, 'NO, I don't feel as you do!' Don't you grasp how horrible that is?" Just suppose your friend's mother happens to be the ugliest creature God ever made. And one day your friend produces a photo of his mother to show you, and he's positively fawning over it, and telling you she's the most beautiful woman in the world. Then comes that nightmare question: He asks you, "Don't you think she's gorgeous?" Good grief, man! You can't tell a guy that his mother looks like pork rinds to you! Neither can a man answer when you declare yourself an adoring "fan" of some minister, and then demand whether I likewise consider him great. Well, I'm sure you recall our discussion. You actually took it rather lightly, and said to me, "Oh, that's just my way of talking. But I won't ask you that anymore." Well, although you changed from hitting me that exact way, none the less many of your "mentioning" of ministers afterward remained rather of the "nature" of inquisitiveness as to whether or not I "like" them. I never seemed able to get you to realize that what you do almost forces a person to "criticize." Well, what if I do not FEEL LIKE "criticizing?" I have almost no choice, if the "nature" of your enquiry is that of rather a "probe" as to whether I HAVE a criticism. It is un-natural to sociable conversation to have to say things like "I don't know what to SAY to you." One should not be put in the bind of having to make "weird" remarks like "I'll keep my opinion to myself, on that," if they just don't FEEL LIKE "criticizing." But that's how it gets, because the "nature" of so many of your "discussions" is actually that of "pulling out of" a person what you want.
Well I said this is about what I "expected" after listening to your voicemail. You said concerning joining Red*mption that you "wanted to talk." You'll have to forgive me, but I basically "counselled" myself to "get ready," because "Name's gonna wanna find out what I think. Better get prepared for it."
So that's what I did.
Since your voicemail I have, as time has permitted, gone on some little "research tours" online, and have gotten a little better acquainted with Redem*tion church and Ron Carp*nter. I figured that was only right to do.
Alright, that's about all I can say, until my next "updating" of the site.
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