I'm usually not one for self-reflection. I like to think of myself as a stoic, take things as they come, instinct kinda guy. But, this week I've been thinking a lot about my past, present and maybe future.
So, Vee(that's Lindsey's middle name, by the way) and I went to see Martin Sexton on Friday night. He and his opening act, the Trevor Hall Band, were great. He was, actually, unbelievable. The guy used to be a street player, you know, those guys on the Plaza or hanging out in front of the Cherry St. Artisan in CoMO. Just a guy, a guitar, and a cheap little amplifier. Now, he tours the country, has a small but strong and loyal fan base, just a guy, a guitar, and a fancy sound system. Anyway, it got me thinking, I really wish I would have done something with my bands.
I've been in three bands, with a couple of projects that were little more than two guys in a basement. First was Golgotha, Todd Monroe, Sam Giffith and me. Our biggest show, Barnswings, Ozark MO. Then Preserve with some college guys from a pentecostal church but they loved Pearl Jam and U2 and played like them. Our biggest show, playing for one of their church rallys. In between there, Tom and I wrote one song in his basement. OK, one song, but it was a good song, if not a little ripped off from our favorite band at the time, Tool. Our biggest gig, Tom's family and recording our one song onto cassette tape.
Then I went to college, met Adam Caldwell, Ray Malik and our red haired, stage fright ridden quaterback. I don't know what our name was, or if we had one, but our biggest show was the Halloween party in the basement of Woodward Hall.
Then, Adam Mustoe, Ryan McClouth and wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwaaaaaaaddddddeee! came to school and Blessed was born. wwwwwwwwwwwade decided to go be more man than any of us ever will and build trucks with his bare hands or something, and Jamie Diffee, a far better bassist and all around cooler guy joined the mix. Our biggest show, almost 2,500 screaming teenagers and an $1,000 pay check.
I gotta tell ya, we were good. With no real sound, no real style, and really no rehersals, we were good. We could've been great, we could've been contenders.
I'm playing music now with Jen Klein, another pastor, and my brother(something I never thought i'd get the honor of doing) and everytime we play I'm reminded of how much I miss being in a band. Writing songs, perfecting them, performing them. That's it. I don't think I've ever felt as truly in my element, so completly myself, as when we rocked the end of "Blessed" for about 7 minutes at our first WOW. I don't think I've ever felt as whole as when Mustoe said "freeze" and 2,500 hundred screaming teenagers actually did what he said. That place blew up. I don't think I've felt as accomplished as when I heard my own drums on, first of all, cassette with Tom and then CD with Blessed.
So, there it is. I regret, my life's only one, that we didn't try harder in these bands. Really just Tom and Blessed. I miss being in a band, I miss creating music, I miss playing on stage, I miss kids buying my broken and signed drum sticks for 21 dollars. I don't know if I'll ever get the chance again, and that's fine. But I hope I do.
I know it's only rock and roll, but I like it,
Brad Bryan, Drummer
Sunday, April 30, 2006
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Monday, April 24, 2006
For Adam Caldwell
Holy crap I'm a Calvinist!!
So, AC, I took your little quiz things I think they may be flawed a bit. I am Chalcedon compliant, no surprise there. I am tied for being Wesleyan and Liberal theologically, again nothing of note. But, then, I take the Which Theologian Are You? quiz and JOHN FREAKIN' CALVIN narrowly beats out mister Paul Tillich. And, I say it's flawed because John Wesley is not a choice for a theologian but Wesleyan is a choice for theological world. How can Wesleyan be a theology if Wesley wasn't a theologian.
Anyway, I'd like to take this oppurtunity to give you all a sample of Bryanian Theology. Now, understand, Barth wrote Dogmatics for about 40 years and never finished it and I have about 15 minutes before I have to go. Here we go.
Doctrine of God: Truly, Wholy, Wonderfully in love with ALL OF CREATION.
Human Condition: Separation. We were created to be with God, our choices separated us.
Christology: Reunion. God became fully human to reconnect the creation with the creator.
Soterilogy(doctrine of salvation): Salvation ultimately rests in the grace of God, nothing we do can save us.
Doctrine of Sin: That which separates us from God further than we are. Choices.
Ecclesiology(doctrine of the church): The church exsists to expose people to the grace of God in Jesus Christ and to actively work towards the social, political, educational, economical, racial, sexual, orientational, and environmental justice of all creation.
Old Testament: Mostly metaphorically, not literally, true in nature, meant to instruct and reveal God's active presence in creation.
New Testament: Meant to first and foremost be seen for its original meaning to its original readers, THEN read for us today. A human product, which in turn makes it seem more real and true to me.
Eschatology(doctrine of End Times): I have no freakin' clue and I don't think we're supposed to know and i don't think it matters one bit to what the church does in this world.
So, there you have it. That's what I think. However, I also think that no human being has ownership of the truth. We won't know for sure until we're on the wrong side of the grass and by then it'll be too late. Conversation and dialogue are key for world religions to bring about the justice that we all seek.
All I have to figure out now is whether it should be BRY-n-e-n (say the letters) or BRYAN-ee-n.
Thanks for the inspiration AC, I'd be interested if you my cohorts in the theological realm of things or any other of my readers would offer similar synopses of their theological stances.
See you in the next world, (except you, lynz I'll see you today, and you andy I'll see you thursday, and you AC/dru/dennis/mustoe i'll see you at graduation, and you mom and dad I'll see you soon, and you tom, i'll see you this summer sometime) But, eventually, I guess, I'll see you in the next world, whatever that might be.
B. James Bryan (my theologian moniker)
So, AC, I took your little quiz things I think they may be flawed a bit. I am Chalcedon compliant, no surprise there. I am tied for being Wesleyan and Liberal theologically, again nothing of note. But, then, I take the Which Theologian Are You? quiz and JOHN FREAKIN' CALVIN narrowly beats out mister Paul Tillich. And, I say it's flawed because John Wesley is not a choice for a theologian but Wesleyan is a choice for theological world. How can Wesleyan be a theology if Wesley wasn't a theologian.
Anyway, I'd like to take this oppurtunity to give you all a sample of Bryanian Theology. Now, understand, Barth wrote Dogmatics for about 40 years and never finished it and I have about 15 minutes before I have to go. Here we go.
Doctrine of God: Truly, Wholy, Wonderfully in love with ALL OF CREATION.
Human Condition: Separation. We were created to be with God, our choices separated us.
Christology: Reunion. God became fully human to reconnect the creation with the creator.
Soterilogy(doctrine of salvation): Salvation ultimately rests in the grace of God, nothing we do can save us.
Doctrine of Sin: That which separates us from God further than we are. Choices.
Ecclesiology(doctrine of the church): The church exsists to expose people to the grace of God in Jesus Christ and to actively work towards the social, political, educational, economical, racial, sexual, orientational, and environmental justice of all creation.
Old Testament: Mostly metaphorically, not literally, true in nature, meant to instruct and reveal God's active presence in creation.
New Testament: Meant to first and foremost be seen for its original meaning to its original readers, THEN read for us today. A human product, which in turn makes it seem more real and true to me.
Eschatology(doctrine of End Times): I have no freakin' clue and I don't think we're supposed to know and i don't think it matters one bit to what the church does in this world.
So, there you have it. That's what I think. However, I also think that no human being has ownership of the truth. We won't know for sure until we're on the wrong side of the grass and by then it'll be too late. Conversation and dialogue are key for world religions to bring about the justice that we all seek.
All I have to figure out now is whether it should be BRY-n-e-n (say the letters) or BRYAN-ee-n.
Thanks for the inspiration AC, I'd be interested if you my cohorts in the theological realm of things or any other of my readers would offer similar synopses of their theological stances.
See you in the next world, (except you, lynz I'll see you today, and you andy I'll see you thursday, and you AC/dru/dennis/mustoe i'll see you at graduation, and you mom and dad I'll see you soon, and you tom, i'll see you this summer sometime) But, eventually, I guess, I'll see you in the next world, whatever that might be.
B. James Bryan (my theologian moniker)
Friday, April 21, 2006
Some things I've learned
Hey everybody,
I'm working on my final paper for Systematic Theology class. It's called, How My Mind Has Changed. So, here's some brainstorming style thoughts that I've learned this year.
The names matthew, mark, luke, and john were put on the Gospels 2oo years after they were written. Call me dense, but I never considered that.
I have power, even when I don't mean to. I have power as a man, as a white man, and as a preacher. Even when I'm trying to be empowering, this power travels with me.
Augustine said on his death bed that everything he ever said was garbage.
St. Julian of Norwich, who wrote about the beauty of God's creation and treating others as children of God, locked her self in a cell with only one servant companion for the last 40 years of her life. She was also kinda crazy, praying for and recieving an illness that almost killed her.
Karl Barth was a smart guy. He wrote a 13 volume theology called Church Dogmatics. The word volume is misleading however, since some of the volume are actually 6 books long!!!! He died before he could finish his masterpiece. The part he never finished: Redemption. God's funny.
Apparently, the New Zealand accent is so strong that living and working in the US for 16 years cannot stop its power.
There were at least four letters to the Corinthians. What happened to the others?
The sect of Jesus followers, sort of, that lived in Qumran (the dead sea scroll place) thought that Habbakkuk was the most important book since sliced manna. HABBAKKUK!! (AC-there's nothing in Malachai)
Atonement is the least creative word in history. It's meaning: at-one-ment. The opposite of atonement, you ask? gotohellment.
And finally, people who raise their hands to ask questions in seminary, apparently, don't have to actually ask any questions. They can just illumine us all with the beacon of light that is their brilliance.
Ah, the wonders of higher education.
~B
I'm working on my final paper for Systematic Theology class. It's called, How My Mind Has Changed. So, here's some brainstorming style thoughts that I've learned this year.
The names matthew, mark, luke, and john were put on the Gospels 2oo years after they were written. Call me dense, but I never considered that.
I have power, even when I don't mean to. I have power as a man, as a white man, and as a preacher. Even when I'm trying to be empowering, this power travels with me.
Augustine said on his death bed that everything he ever said was garbage.
St. Julian of Norwich, who wrote about the beauty of God's creation and treating others as children of God, locked her self in a cell with only one servant companion for the last 40 years of her life. She was also kinda crazy, praying for and recieving an illness that almost killed her.
Karl Barth was a smart guy. He wrote a 13 volume theology called Church Dogmatics. The word volume is misleading however, since some of the volume are actually 6 books long!!!! He died before he could finish his masterpiece. The part he never finished: Redemption. God's funny.
Apparently, the New Zealand accent is so strong that living and working in the US for 16 years cannot stop its power.
There were at least four letters to the Corinthians. What happened to the others?
The sect of Jesus followers, sort of, that lived in Qumran (the dead sea scroll place) thought that Habbakkuk was the most important book since sliced manna. HABBAKKUK!! (AC-there's nothing in Malachai)
Atonement is the least creative word in history. It's meaning: at-one-ment. The opposite of atonement, you ask? gotohellment.
And finally, people who raise their hands to ask questions in seminary, apparently, don't have to actually ask any questions. They can just illumine us all with the beacon of light that is their brilliance.
Ah, the wonders of higher education.
~B
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
Words of Wisdom
Let me give you some background: there's a recent movement in the church called the Confessing Church movement. This is primarially a conservative group of folks whose main goal would be to create a checklist of beliefs one has to attest in order to be a United Methodist. (I'm sure some of those beliefs would be "I am not an Illegal Immigrant" or "I do not love those in my own gender").
The words "Confessing Church" come from Karl Barth (that's Bart, for those who haven't been or it's been 30 years since you were in seminary). So, here are some important words from the man from whom this movement took its name.
"Since God became incarnate is Jesus, and every human being is, by definition, related to Jesus of Nazareth, therefore, every human being is related to God Incarnate and should be treated as such"
Can you imagine a city, a church, a world where every person was treated by every other person as God's blessed and beloved child? I'm sad to say that I almost can't imagine such a place. In a world where some people are still treated as less than people, let alone part of the divine family, it's hard to imagine what this place would be like is we actually took the foremost theologian of the past 100 years at his word and put that word into action.
The next time I get cut off or stuck behind someone on 71, the next time a waiter gets my order wrong, the next time a fellow student raises their hand to make a statement and not ask a question, I'm gonna try and remember that they too are a child of God, a relative of Jesus, and should be treated as such.
~Brad
The words "Confessing Church" come from Karl Barth (that's Bart, for those who haven't been or it's been 30 years since you were in seminary). So, here are some important words from the man from whom this movement took its name.
"Since God became incarnate is Jesus, and every human being is, by definition, related to Jesus of Nazareth, therefore, every human being is related to God Incarnate and should be treated as such"
Can you imagine a city, a church, a world where every person was treated by every other person as God's blessed and beloved child? I'm sad to say that I almost can't imagine such a place. In a world where some people are still treated as less than people, let alone part of the divine family, it's hard to imagine what this place would be like is we actually took the foremost theologian of the past 100 years at his word and put that word into action.
The next time I get cut off or stuck behind someone on 71, the next time a waiter gets my order wrong, the next time a fellow student raises their hand to make a statement and not ask a question, I'm gonna try and remember that they too are a child of God, a relative of Jesus, and should be treated as such.
~Brad
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
Spring Fever Redux
Well, this is probably the most stressed out I've ever been. School's gearing up and getting pretty busy: this week a take home test, next week an exegesis paper, the next week an annotated bibliography and the next week THREE tests. Also, I had to do my taxes this week and although, because of the wisdom of my parents, we're getting money back this year, just walking into that taxman's building is stressful. And, on top of all of that, a "family emergency" has taken my boss out of church, meaning I have a 100% increase in worship leadership and pastoral care responsibilities.
I need summer. I long for it. I need to spend time at the lake with my family and friends. I need to have Saturdays not spent inside working on papers but at the park with my dog. Ya know what I look forward too? Growing up you're always balancing too many responsibilities. Like right now, I'm a student AND a pastor. I can't wait for the day when I'm just one thing. I know the duties will grow and the stress won't go away, but I'll just be one thing. I won't have to struggle between two full time occupations. When I go home from a long day at work I won't have to immediately sit down for a long night of homework. I can't wait.
It's 80 degrees, without a cloud in the sky, and I'm at the computer, writing this....
Brad
I need summer. I long for it. I need to spend time at the lake with my family and friends. I need to have Saturdays not spent inside working on papers but at the park with my dog. Ya know what I look forward too? Growing up you're always balancing too many responsibilities. Like right now, I'm a student AND a pastor. I can't wait for the day when I'm just one thing. I know the duties will grow and the stress won't go away, but I'll just be one thing. I won't have to struggle between two full time occupations. When I go home from a long day at work I won't have to immediately sit down for a long night of homework. I can't wait.
It's 80 degrees, without a cloud in the sky, and I'm at the computer, writing this....
Brad
Friday, April 07, 2006
Pride
Early Morning
April Four
Shot rang out in the Memphis sky
Free at last
They took your life
They could not take your PRIDE!
~Thanks, MLK, sorry I'm late.
Well, folks, I'm suffering from some serious spring fever. This weather has been unbelievable. With my girl on my arm and my dog on the leash, I don't think there's anywhere I'd rather be right now than at the park, or the lake.
I told the staff that I was upset that I had to usher, for Sarah and Dennis' wedding, on my birthday, and I got a lot of "welcome to adulthood" type comments. Ya know, I hope I never lose the idea that my birthday is special and I shouldn't be working. Birthdays should be spent with friends and family. And, I hope I never lose spring fever. I hope I never lose senioritis. The idea that when it's "Sunny with a high of 75" (to quote the fellas of Reliant K) one should not be crammed into an office somewhere or running around to meetings. Especially those of us who work in the theological realm. Weather like this is God's gift to us, and any preacher who DOESN'T get outside, write a sermon at the park, take a walk for a meeting instead of staying in the board room, or something is missing the point.
This week, my friends, don't deny spring fever because that's what adults do. Embrace it. Get outside. I'll think you'll find that you are actually happy to be alive.
I hope and pray that becoming an adult doesn't mean denying ourselves of anything fun, as some folks around here seem to think. Gotta go, I think I'll go to the park.
Brad
April Four
Shot rang out in the Memphis sky
Free at last
They took your life
They could not take your PRIDE!
~Thanks, MLK, sorry I'm late.
Well, folks, I'm suffering from some serious spring fever. This weather has been unbelievable. With my girl on my arm and my dog on the leash, I don't think there's anywhere I'd rather be right now than at the park, or the lake.
I told the staff that I was upset that I had to usher, for Sarah and Dennis' wedding, on my birthday, and I got a lot of "welcome to adulthood" type comments. Ya know, I hope I never lose the idea that my birthday is special and I shouldn't be working. Birthdays should be spent with friends and family. And, I hope I never lose spring fever. I hope I never lose senioritis. The idea that when it's "Sunny with a high of 75" (to quote the fellas of Reliant K) one should not be crammed into an office somewhere or running around to meetings. Especially those of us who work in the theological realm. Weather like this is God's gift to us, and any preacher who DOESN'T get outside, write a sermon at the park, take a walk for a meeting instead of staying in the board room, or something is missing the point.
This week, my friends, don't deny spring fever because that's what adults do. Embrace it. Get outside. I'll think you'll find that you are actually happy to be alive.
I hope and pray that becoming an adult doesn't mean denying ourselves of anything fun, as some folks around here seem to think. Gotta go, I think I'll go to the park.
Brad
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
