What's a clergy?

In another example of the declining influence of popular culture (which may not be all that of a bad thing), I had this conversation with an 18 year old girl who cut my hair today.

"Are you on your lunch break or did you have the day off to get your haircut?"​

"Oh, I have a flexible work schedule. I am clergy." 

"What's a clergy?" ​

"Clergy? It is a minister."​

"Oh. Cool. I read about clergy in my history books in school. With Rome and all that stuff. That is neat they are still around."​

Neat indeed. ​

Crowd Sourcing This...

SUMC is working on consolidating the mission and service we do here so that we are able to have a greater concentration of effort to create lasting change. We are also looking to increase visibility and communication for the different areas of service that we do as a church. 

Here is a draft to ​a "Service Calendar", or you can see the pic below. ​The left side has the themes, collections, and opportunities for the year. The right side has the current month in greater detail. 

​Thoughts? 

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Pentecost as a capstone?

In the opening chapters of Genesis (1-2) we read about Adam and Eve. We then move into a story of temptation (3).​ The next chapters (4-5) we hear about the first murder and how Abel's blood cried our for vengeance. Genesis 6 has the story of the flood, where there is death for all. Genesis 11 we read of the tower of Babel where language divides the nations. 

Could it be that the gospel writer Luke uses this framework to structure his story of salvation? ​

Luke 3 there is the genealogy of Jesus that goes all the way back to Adam ​- thus implying Jesus is a new Adam.

Luke 4 there is Jesus' temptation. And where Adam failed Jesus prevailed. ​

Luke 23 Jesus is murdered, but unlike Abel who cries out to God for revenge, Jesus cries out to God for forgiveness and mercy. ​

Luke 24 tells the story of the resurrection where the world is not destroyed but is resurrected through the life of Christ. ​

Finally, where language was the cause of division of the nations in Genesis, in Acts 2 language becomes that which unites the nations. ​

Here is a chart I made for those who want this in a liner fashion.​

​Could it be the story of Luke/Acts (in case you are unaware it is believed these were really one story broken into two "books" written by the same author), is also a story of new creation? Not just in a spiritual sense, but in a very real sense, could it be that like Genesis, Luke/Acts tells a creation story.

Could it be that the story of Pentecost is a capstone to a set of stories that count-balance Genesis?