The Relevant Interview

Let's make one thing perfectly clear: I'll never be the Christian artist/writer who will ever be interviewed by the trendy, glossy magazines. It's not a motivation that I have, largely because I have some issues with the Christian Celebrity Industrial Complex. It's not a desire they have, either, largely because well...ummm...let's just say that I haven't done much of anything that would want them to.

So, since this is a free forum (eliminating any ties with and "selling out" to the CCIC) and I think we all have that latent celebrity thing where we'd all like to have done something that would make us worthy of an hour on Oprah or 15 minutes on Letterman/Conan/Kimmel and what we'd say or do...

...I stole the questions from this month's Relevant Leader magazine where they get someone and e-mail them some questions and pretended that this is what I'd send them if they wanted to interview me:

Age: 41
Occupation: Professional Follower of Christ
Favorite Movies: All-time, Caddyshack, Raising Arizona, Dumb & Dumber. This year, thus far: Reign Over Me.
Favorite Musicians/Bands: All-time, Ramones, U2, REM, Nirvana & Pearl Jam. This year, I like The Shins & Son Volt's newest efforts.
Church Background: I'm a mutt. I grew up Episcopalian, went to an independent Bible church in high school, attended a Presbyterian church in college, have worked part-time for both United Methodist & Southern Baptist churches to make ends meet, and currently work for an independant Bible church.
Current Church Involvement: It's my vocation, and I go to an awful lot of meetings and worship services and teach a bunch of classes.
Involved in a Small Group?: Yep. My junior/senior guys' Bible study on Wednesday nights. I prepare lessons and they respond with real life applications.
Favorite pastimes: Reading & writing. Absolutely no math. I goof around with power chords on a guitar and can play 80% of about 50 songs. I never learn the solos or breaks.
Are most of your friends Christian or non-Christian: Christian, at least by profession. Occupational hazzard.
How much money do you spend on entertainment every week? Are books entertainment? If so, and you combined that with cable per week, I'd say about $25.
Do you have a good relationship with your family? Yes. I can say for sure that we love and like each other. We chat a lot and laugh a lot and supportive of one another. Of course, there will be things I'm certain my children will tell their therapists about me in about 10 years.
How would you classify yourself politically? Cynical, and I vote my conscience. I never miss an election on any level.
What social issues are important to you? I rally around two: alternative energy research (on a 60's space-race scale) & it's sister, public transportation. You might think those are actually political issues, but I'd say each one has tremendous social results. I'm not sure I could tell you the dominos that would fall over if we mastered those...and how our entire world would benefit. The downside is that people are too selfish to make that idealism a reality. See, I told you I was cynical.
How do you feel about homosexuality? My feelings, quite frankly, are irrelevant to the discussion. I believe, however, that the Body of Christ has picked on this issue to the exclusion of more important ones (and talk about dominos that fell over) and I believe that the political lobby of the homosexual community has actually hurt the cause of said community. I do think both extremes have lost the ability to love the other as people instead of trying to achieve political/religious objectives.
Do you believe in absolute truth? Yes. It's the foundation of my beliefs, and historic Christianity stands on it, IMHO.
What would you change about your local church? I would like to see the generations "converge" more. The older generation can use the innovation, creativity, passion, excitement & enthusiasm of the younger ones, and the younger ones can use the wisdom, history, experience, values and insight of the older one. I think we're working towards that, but it's slow going.
What frustrates you about the Church?: The way people bring a "serve me" mentality to it. They want what they want when they want it and how they want it instead of loving and serving. Plus, the way it works in America now is that there is pressure to provide more goods & services since people don't find their liking at one place they can go to another one down the road that does (and is a good church, by the way).
What encourages you about the Church?: The availability of incredible resources out there that allows people to disciple themselves, which will allow them to grow and turn around and use those gifts and talents to serve. The Web has so much good stuff out there for free and the community that result from like-minded folks from all over the world gets me excited about the possibilities.

*the accompanying photo that these words overlay would be one of me in my hammock, wearing my flannel pants & Auburn t-shirt & Birks, holding "Breakfast of Champions" by Kurt Vonnegut, with dog Lloyd at my feet.*