Why Men Hate Going To Church- David Murrow

Published in the "Following Faith" section of the 4 November 2011 Salt Lake Tribune, the blogger Peggy Fletcher Stack cites the new revision of the 2005 book, "Why Men Hate Going to Church" by David Murrow.
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/blogsfaithblog/52850846-180/church-murrow-presbyterian-author.html.csp
The top reasons...
1. A bad experience like they had as a kid.
2. Loss of control.
3. That they'll get stuck with some weirdo.
4. That someone might think they're gay.
5. That they'll become “soft”.
6. That church is too tough on single guys.
7. That people will think they're "not getting much sex."
8. The church is full of hypocrites.
9. That all the church wants is money.
10. They're jealous of their wives' attachment to Jesus
11. The behavioral standards are too high.
12. They're afraid of heaven.


Fascinating...I'll have to check out the book just to see where and how he did his research.

Happy Man- Johnny Barnes- Lavishing Love

Clip from Mr. Happy Man from Matt Morris on Vimeo.

Innovation and Change

Published by Aish.com
Here is their interpretation of the modern day Exodous from Egypt by the Jewish People.
http://www.aish.com/h/pes/mm/Passover_Google_Exodus.html#.TmpKcCrura4.email

There was a time when communication happened only verbally or by couriers carrying a letter. A distance of 100 miles took three days to traverse and events escalated and decisions were made at a slower pace than today. This two plus minute video frames all of these activities into today's available technology.

Intro to Meditation

Here are a few tips on meditation that I share with students. Try them and feel free to adjust to suit your own preference. The intention of meditation is to spend period of time in quiet.  With a regular meditation practice people experience greater clarity, peace and other benefits.

The simplest form:

1. Find a comfortable place to sit. Sitting is good. Lying down also works.  

2. Breathe in, let the air go to your lower belly. I like to breathe in to a count of 5, then let out for a count of 5.

3. Sometimes I draw an infinity loop in my mind. As I breathe in the loop goes down through my leg and comes back up the other leg to my waist. The exhale begins at the waist and covers the loop in the upper half of my body. 

4. Repeat the loop. If you lose track or are interrupted then just let it go and come back to the breath.

a couple of tips:

If you fall asleep, ok, welcome that you were relaxed. Experiment with what type of chair and position you are in. You'll find out what works best for you.

If your mind wanders, then notice and release the distraction. Come back to the rhythm of your breath.

If you think you're doing it wrong, go back to your breathing.

Here is a site I found explaining breathing meditation.  http://www.how-to-meditate.org/breathing-meditations.htm/

And here is the link to my web log and topics on meditation. I like the first entry a lot as a 9 year old is giving instructions on how to meditate.

http://heartspiritspace.blogspot.com/search/label/meditation

How Are We Doing? Measuring Growth

We use measures of Gross National Product, Employment Rate, graduation rate, test scores and a myriad of other parameters to characterize how our country is doing. Political leaders rely on their past history of performance indicators to support their claims of excellent leadership and reasons to be reelected. Recently Prime Minister David Cameron in the UK initiated a program to begin measuring happiness. There has been much debate questioning why should we measure happiness when there are so many practical things to do and complete. Roger Cohen in today's New York TImes article ( here ) discusses the addition of the happiness quotient, 'Happinomics' to go along with the traditional mechanical measurements of economic performance..

As Cohen puts it, the founding fathers of the US guaranteed freedom in the constitution and allowed individuals to embrace 'the pursuit of happiness'.  Polling these harder to measure topics such as happiness and wellbeing can help policy makers awareness of what's going on in people's lives.

Words, Symbols and Language

Today, while driving to present the Sunday talk at Center for Spiritual Living White Plains I listened to 'RadioLab' on WNYC. As a student of symbols, words and communication I was amazed by the story 'Words that Change The World'. In the first 10 minutes Susan Schaller describes her experience working with a deaf 27 year old man as he first experienced language. It's an inspirational and revealing listen. At the end of her section, Schaller asks "What happens when we get symbols and we start trading symbols? It changes our ideas". The total segment is 30 minutes and is described on the site. Schaller's 1995 book is 'A Man WIthout Words' . I've just reserved it from the library. I plan to append this post with a section I am planning on 'The Emergence of Spring'.

Worth Pausing and Noting

This week in San Diego, International and United Centers for Spiritual Living voted to come together into one organization, Centers for Spiritual Living. Fifty seven years ago a human organization divided into two groups. Both groups originated from one history and one belief system. Both had nearly identical classes and studied from one main source book. They both believe in an infinite Universe that is ever present and that unifies all beings. And they both believe that thoughts create things in the world. What was different was the two groups did not agree on how to structure and administer the philosophy in this world.

These two talks describe the memorable event and coming back together. Great change management, or consciousness development, has been done by a common group. It has been a highly inclusive process that has occurred over the past five or more years.
Rev. Dr's Kenn Gordon and Kathy Hearn are the leaders of the two old organizations.
A YouTube Video of celebration after the vote to create Centers for Spiritual Living was announced.
There has been a transformation in thought.

Instructions on How to Meditate

A 9 year old explains her experience of meditation. It is so simple. Tia Nicole goes through the steps at 2:30 into the clip. Watch it here or double click on the image to watch it on YouTube site.

'Tell Them About the Dream, Martin'

Clarence B. Jones was interviewed by Tavis Smiley last week. Clarence is an attorney and was an advisor and a speechwriter for Martin Luther King. In this interview Jones talks about the March on Washington and the experience of being there during the famous speech on August 28, 1963. The Dream was not part of King's original speech. Mahalia Jackson, King's favorite gospel singer, called out to Martin that day, "Tell them about the dream, Martin" and he laid out the Dream for that audience of 250,000.  It was not the first time he had spoken about the dream but as Jones says in the Smiley interview, King had the ability adlib and cut and paste pieces of speeches together at the most appropriate time and he did that so well. Kings speeches (printed,  audio and some video) speeches are here.

We all have a dream that lives within us. It is our potential energy waiting to be unleashed into movement, action and kinetic energy.

The interview is 16 minutes. The main section about the dream is 0:45 to 7:00. You can find it on YouTube - search on "TAVIS SMILEY Clarence B. Jones PBS1142"

Prepped and Joyfully Done

After completing an event, a milestone or an activity, it is good to bask in the completion. Our Center has built a theme for 2011 modeled on a book, called 'The Happiness Project'. Our Ministers are presenting quarterly Sunday afternoon workshops where attendees construct their personal happiness project. We completed our first workshop with great success yesterday.
Preparing for my segment I began listening to the Black Eyed Peas song, 'I gotta feeling' and found that these words resonate for my project.

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday
Friday, Saturday, Saturday and Sunday
We keep keep keep keep on going
We know what we say
Party everyday
Party everyday

The words are somewhat simplistic but they represent two things for me- First, being engaged in life happens seven days a week and second, I choose to live every day with the joy and activity of being at a party. And from that feeling I create and enjoy my life.