Parchment and Pen » Odds and Ends

Odds and Ends

~ C Michael Patton ~

Its my son Zach’s 2 year birthday today. Going to Chuck-e-Cheese.
Word about Facebook: the “friend” thing is really odd. I have added a lot of friends that I don’t know, but now they seem to be more of the flavor that add you so that they can spam. Going to have to rethink this.
Reading The Shack for the first time. You know what? I love it. More to come…
Everything my kids eat has absolutely no nutritional value.
The drywall goes up today at the Credo House of Theology. Just a few more weeks!
Greatest shows on TV: 24, Battlestar Galactica, Lost, and Smallville. Yes, they are.
Not the Religious Type by Dave Schmelzer is actually pretty good. I recommend it.
Did you know that you can support this ministry by buying all you Amazon stuff through our link on this page? Do it and be blessed.
Watched the premire of Kings last night on NBC. Very interesting. It was essentially a modern day King David story (at least so far).
I am a Calvinist who goes to an Arminian church (no, I am not at Stonebriar anymore or this statement would not be true!). Can you guess why?
If a snail falls into a 10 foot deep hole and climbs up three feet every day but at night falls back down two, how long will it take him to get out?
Have you heard? U2 is coming to Norman, OK. They must have heard I moved here.
Reading Bart Erhman new book, Jesus Interrupted. Typical Bart these days. More emotion, strawmen, misdirection than anything substantial. However, it will influence people—especially if you have not taken The Theology Program!
Just sprayed the house for spiders. I feel manly. Won’t let anyone else do it.
Featured blog.
Have you noticed that no one talks about “emerging” anymore? That five year phase ran its course. Now even the mention of it is nauseating. Behind the scenes, something new is coming. I know what it is, but I am not telling.
Going to the Kanakuk Family Camp this summer. Dates: June 25-July 1. Can you join me? Quote from my kids, “Its better than Disney World.” It really is.
I am cursed with an obsessive compulsive personality. Could take a pill, but it is also my gift. I just try to direct it in the right direction.

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24 Responses to “Odds and Ends”

dac on 16 Mar 2009 at 4:49 pm #

1. It is such a blessing to be passed the CC era in my house
2. I am hurt – don’t you love my spam?
3. Keep thinking about it, but then I would have something else to whine about the new fundamentalists about
4. Dirt has minerals
5. You should of built it in Eau Claire Wisconsin
6. hmmm, no there not. Well, except BG.
7. ok
8. Yes I do
9. I did too – it was, odd. But I will watch again.
10. No I can’t guess.
11. I dont care
12. Is it a double header with Poison?
13. blech
14. thats why i have a dog
15. Jealous, I am
16. So your saying all those new fundamentalists who keep talking about it are “no one”. I agree.
17. Sweet. Come to family came at fortwilderness.com
18. it is a curse
Zach Nielsen on 16 Mar 2009 at 7:23 pm #

Thanks for the link!

z
From The Balcony on 16 Mar 2009 at 7:55 pm #

Michael
I’ll be anxious to see what you think about The Shack when you are done. It was at the end I decided I didn’t like it…..
Philip D on 16 Mar 2009 at 8:20 pm #

3. Oh, thank you! Finally another evangelical who can look past the obvious problems with The Shack and find something worthwhile…
5. Congrats, how exciting!
6. Close, but really it’s 24, Terminator, The Unit, The Office.
Rich G on 16 Mar 2009 at 9:27 pm #

“I am a Calvinist who goes to an Arminian church (no, I am not at Stonebriar anymore or this statement would not be true!). Can you guess why? ” – hmmmm…..I suspect it’s because you thrive in tension!
Eclectic Christian - Michael Bell on 16 Mar 2009 at 9:35 pm #

10. Probably to exercise your free will. Either that, or it was the will of God that you went there.
Chris on 16 Mar 2009 at 9:48 pm #

You go to that church to get to talk to me.

And, rest assured, I will arrange a meeting with Bono when he is here, because those of us who are doing right practice . . . ROCK!
bethyada on 17 Mar 2009 at 12:37 am #

11. 8 days
Nick on 17 Mar 2009 at 7:12 am #

I knew your heresy would come out soon if I waited long enough….

The other TV shows are not worthy to be in the same category as Smallville. It stands out on its own for supreme greatness….

And he thinks he’s a bigger fan than I of Smallville…..
havoc on 17 Mar 2009 at 7:40 am #

1. Happy birthday, Zack!
2. Yeah, well, I didn’t add you because I figured (a) you don’t know me and (b) you have hundreds (thousands) of other, closer friends. (I’m collecting requests of all kinds, unaccepted, unignored.)

5. Woohoo!

8. Take a look at GoodSearch.com. I was shocked that we have already started generating a trickle of revenue. Don’t know how it will work for you, but take a look.

10. At least I’m not the only one. I’ll be watching for you series of posts on this one.
11. I’m praying for you.

16. I was thinking about this recently. I have no idea what’s next.
17. Really?

You’re a blessing!
Chris Skiles on 17 Mar 2009 at 7:54 am #

Michael,

Loved the odds and ends post. You crack me up. On reading The Shack: I read the first 20 pages on line and loved it. Read the reviews by the Evangels/Fundys and decided I hated it. I’m anxious to hear your opinion.

At least you are right about Lost and 24. Awesome shows.

Spiders? I have a fear that termites will eat my house. So I just avoid checking for them.

I haven’t mentioned it before but one of my best friends is on staff with the Navigators and used to minister to Chinese students in Norman. Small world.

“I am cursed with an obsessive compulsive personality. Could take a pill, but it is also my gift. I just try to direct it in the right direction.”

This is me. Just ask my wife and teenage kids. What the world do w/out us OCD people?
Lisa Robinson on 17 Mar 2009 at 8:49 am #

Your kids eat junk too? Now I don’t feel so bad. And you’re probably not the only Calvinist who goes to an Arminian church. Mine is missional, so it just might be
Susan on 17 Mar 2009 at 8:53 am #

#16 The New Calvinism ???? !!!!
Jugulum on 17 Mar 2009 at 9:56 am #

6. Greatest shows on TV: 24, Battlestar Galactica, Lost, and Smallville. Yes, they are.

Oh, Michael. Michael, Michael, Michael.

You put Smallville on the list, but have no mention of Burn Notice, Chuck, or The Office?

The coming evangelical collapse, indeed.
Rey on 17 Mar 2009 at 10:33 am #

I heard Smallville actually was good this season.
Nick on 17 Mar 2009 at 10:35 am #

Rey. You say there was a season when it wasn’t?

*Picks up a stone*
Scottl on 17 Mar 2009 at 12:17 pm #

CMP -

I am very happy to hear you like The Shack. Most Calvinists don’t like it.

I love 24 and Lost, but this season’s Prison Break is the best season of that, I don’t know when they will pick it back up in Belgium, though. 24 has been ok this season. Still contemplating Lost. It is getting a little too sci-fi for me. I used to watch Smallville, but it got so sensual I let it go. I love Superman and that story, but Smallville was a Dawson’s Creek version of Superman (guess that is what you get from the CW).

And, Rey, I am happy to see you posting here.
Hans Zaepfel on 18 Mar 2009 at 10:07 am #

10. I thought I was the only one. Is your wife arminian? That’s why I go to an arminian church. It also helps keep me thinking about things I think I am settled on.
historic salve on 18 Mar 2009 at 10:21 am #

I’m rather surprised that you’d say you love The Shack (I’ve consistently heard bad reviews from conservative Christians). What about it do you like?
Chris Skiles on 18 Mar 2009 at 5:57 pm #

Michael, you absolutly have to explain why you , being a calvinist , go to an Arminian church. I just have to know!
Joe Chavez on 19 Mar 2009 at 12:43 pm #

Michael,

I got through about 75% of “The Shack” until a devout Christian friend of mine–after telling him I was reading it and he should give it a look–told me that it had theological problems and he’d bring the Bible and I could bring “The Shack” and he’d show me.

I never said it was a perfect book, I just suggested or asked him if he had read it. His reaction put me off because of his self-righteous reaction. I got what I wanted out of it. The Bible is still my only authority, not “The Shack.”

That being said, I hope you devout a post to your review of it. I may pick it back up and finish reading it.
Lisa Robinson on 19 Mar 2009 at 1:23 pm #

I thought this was a pretty reasonable discussion about the Shack.

http://www.bible.org/page.php?page_id=6198
Mark Friends on 22 Mar 2009 at 12:08 pm #

1. Took my little girl there for her 7th birthday. Was great!

2. Am a Software Engineer (47 yo), but can’t get into social programs like facebook, don’t have a blackberry nor a cell phone!!! But I do love Java, for applications, not the web. Also love ADA. Know what that is?

3. I love the Shack. I understand there were certain Pharisaical reactions to it, and it was not perfect. But I do believe it is the modern day Job story, and in the end it shows the radical nature of God’s love in such a fallen world. Take the good, throw away the bad, and you will get it. One comment I can’t resist. There was some comment about the Holy Spirit, I forget what she was called in The Shack, and dimensionality. I believe, not dogmatically, that everything that we can know and understand about our present universe is created. That includes time and dimensionality. God is outside of all that.

4. My little girl eats Pizza. Isn’t that nutritious?

6. 24, NCIS, House (though when they talk about diagnosing MS in a few hours it makes me barf). I have MS and the McDonald criteria of 2005 says a minimum of 6 months. I also barfed at a recent show where House went on Methadone instead of Vicodin and all the doctors were so incredibly upset. Idiots. I was on very large doses of Methadone for 2 years for 3 bad discs. And once he was on it, it would take a long time to go off. The withdrawal is hell. Other shows: Life, Lie to Me, The Unit, Saving Grace, The Mentalist, The Beast, Law and Order, etc. Spend a lot of time in bed with no energy to do much. A lot of these shows are like living a separate vicarious life for me.

10. Not a Calvinist in any way, but not Arminian either. Go figure. No, I mean really, go figure that one out. It is possible to be neither.

11. I am an engineer. That problem I would have done in 7th grade.duh.

12. Yes, I Love RAP! I admit it and will not repent. I am white and 47 and am not doing it to connect to one of my older kids. Anyone who hasn’t listened to 2Pac needs to. Listen to people who have lived thru stuff most of you never will. On the Christian side, listen to Emmanual Jal (Warchild) from The Sudan. That is an example of a REAL Christian.

14. I would have to do that. All the women in my house are deadly afraid of spiders. The dogs and cats don’t eat them often enuf.

18. I am a little OCD, but there is this segment that causes hyper-focus with regards to my work, and it works for me. I would never change that. It also got me thru Engineering School graduating Summa Cum Laude. So there to anti-OCD’ers
Mark Friends on 22 Mar 2009 at 12:14 pm #

3. One more not very related comment. I am an unapologetic Old-earther, but find that Evolution is the biggest scientific idiocy, that is until recently, when they (athiestic type scientists) started talking about infinite/Multiple universes. Me thinks they doth protest too much against creationism.