He knew something important. The faith community was strong. They didn’t set the youth aside, waiting for the day when these teens could become adults and then be part of the church. This church expected youth to be part of the church now. That’s not to say that there shouldn’t be youth groups, just that churches should consider what is expected of the youth and how the church will be part of their lives.

This is the focus of a book called “Almost Christian” which is getting a lot of press in church leadership circles this week. The author, Kenda Creasy Dean spoke to over 3000 youth and discovered that many of them were ignorant and apathetic about their faith, demonstrating what she named “moralistic therapeutic deism.” Rightfully, she blames parents and churches.

You can read a full review and discussion of the book at CNN, but this is not new for most people who have been in the church for a while. We see it, feel it, wonder about it, and do our best to prevent this watered down faith. Sometimes we cause it, attempting to attract teens to our churches, and not always knowing what to do when we get them there. Sometimes, thank God, the youth lead each other into deeper waters.

Tomorrow at FUMC Henderson the youth will play a large role in the worship of the church. They do this on most 5th Sundays, and we enjoy these services, but it’s important that we acknowledge times when it’s not youth Sunday and our youth are still helping in worship. We have had youth in choir, youth reading scripture, youth acolyting and ushering, and that’s a great start.

But we, not just our congregation, but quite obviously the whole church in America, need to be about Jesus Christ; not just a god who wants us to feel good and help others feel good, but a King, our Lord. The problem here may not be that we are only giving our youth weak soup, but that we are preparing it and drinking it too.

You may want to read some of the Methodist tweets

It’s understandable that it’s new, because it just opened, with no pomp, on Tuesday. The building it’s in, directly across from Sakura, has been 27 different types of food and I can’t even remember anymore what it was originally. The most recent tenant was some sort of country cooking. The last time I ate there it was Chicago style hot dogs and sandwiches. I hope Tulum will be able to stick around.

Ordering is much like most fast food restaurants. The menu is similar to many of the taquerias and other Mexican restaurants in the area. It’s not as extensive as Los Portales, but it’s definitely better than a Taco Bell. They said they’ll have a webpage and FB page up soon, so I’ll link a menu when they get that started.

We weren’t there for a review, so we didn’t get a wide variety of the food, but the tacos de carne asada were excellent. For about $7, you get two great steak tacos, a handful of chips, a cup of rice and a cup of beans. On my next trip, I’ll probably try a burrito, but I was told the fish tacos were good, and I don’t know if anyone else in Jackson has fish tacos. It was plenty of food, and you can dress it with various peppers and sauces. Though I didn’t have one, they had a pretty good selection of bottled beer. The soda was serve yourself and their sweet tea was above average.

I asked one of the folks who seemed to be in charge if Tulum was a chain. It just felt like one. The staff wore Tulum shirts, there were hats for sale, it was organized and easy to order. But it’s definitely not a chain. We ordered and sat down. I don’t know if they ever called our number or not, because someone brought our food out to the table. Someone else checked on us, and another person cleared our table as we finished eating. This is going to be a great place for quick lunch with friends. For roughly the same prices as a value meal, you can eat at a local place with great food and service.

Tulum Fresh Mexican Grill

71 Carriage House Drive.

Jackson TN 38305

“Thomas Nelson is releasing a new book called Jesus Manifesto: Restoring the Supremacy and Sovereignty of Jesus Christ by Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola. This book will be on special discount from Amazon.com on June 1^st, the date of the release. You can learn more by going to www.theJesusManifesto.com. Endorsements by Rowan Williams, Matt Chandler, Calvin Miller, Ed Young, Jack Hayford, Shane Claiborne, Ed Stetzer, Reggie McNeal, Mark Batterson, Gregory Boyd, David Fitch, Steve Brown, Dan Kimball, Margaret Feinberg, Mark Chironna, Francis Frangipane, Todd Hunter, Alan Hirsch, Chris Seay, Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, Anne Jackson, Craig Keener, Ken Ulmer, Tommy Barnett, Sally Morgenthaler, and others.”

I’ll do a more complete review when I’ve finished the book.

Methodist school brainwashed me. Till I was 10 I believed the Catholic school we played soccer against was called English Farters Junior.

Okay, who gave my kid The Methodist Coloring Book?  Time to fess up!

Facebook has just invited me to ‘poke’ the President of the Methodist Conference. What would Mr Wesley have made of that? Oh OK then!  #fb

Wäre ich Methodist, würde ich Gott an dieser Stelle dafür danken, dass er Ubuntu so gelungen gemacht hat. (If I was a Methodist, I would like to thank God at this point that he has made Ubuntu so successful.)

I was raised as a schismatic Methodist. We worshipped Marlon Brando.

It was worth it.

The tournament started late, but was otherwise very organized. The judges were given scoring instructions. Everyone under black belt was required to have face protection when sparring. The emcee was very knowledgeable and he and the other officials were moving things through quickly. All judges were assigned at the beginning of the tournament, so there were no constant cries of  “we need three black belt judges to ring three.”

The judging seemed very fair and consistent, and there were at least 10 schools present, which made it even less likely to allow bias in scoring. You could potentially be judging a ring in which you never saw any of your own students.

I don’t know exactly how many participants there were, but there were far more weapons katas at this competition than I’ve ever seen. I’ve only seen sword kata performed at competition by my own Sensei, Hanchi Bass. Here there were several different weapons including Kung Fu straight sword and eku bo.

I’m going to contact the organizers to ask a few questions about the event, but I’m definitely going to recommend it to the dojo family. A few MINOR criticisms:

• nice venue, but hard to view all the action, because you were in chairs, not bleachers. Of course, that’s also far more comfortable.
• church gym had a balcony, which would allow great views, but it was closed (to prevent dropped kamas?)
• if you were judging, you wouldn’t be able to participate in any events, or watch any of your students other than those you judge.
• many rings made the floor seem cramped, and I wouldn’t have wanted to have to run the eku bo (a long boat oar) kata, but I’m not a weapons guy, so it may have been plenty of room. I didn’t see any judges with stitches, so it must have worked out ok.

I have to say, one of the other things I enjoyed about the tournament was Bowling Green itself. We had sushi and vegetable tempura for lunch and then headed over to the National Corvette Museum instead of catching the end of the tournament, and still made it home by 7 p.m. It was a long day, but it was enjoyable. I’ll be back next year.

One of my favorite Psalm responses is actually a restatement of part of the fifth verse of  Psalm 30. In the NIV, it reads:

weeping may remain for a night,
but rejoicing comes in the morning.

We sing it as “In the night, weeping may tarry, with the morning light comes joy.” It’s sung very simply, and the highest notes in what is more of a chant than a song, are on morning light. It’s a chant and for me it’s a prayer. I sing it often when I read this prayer.

Watch, O Lord,
with those who wake,
or watch or weep tonight,
and give your angels charge
over those who sleep.

Tend your sick ones,
O Lord Jesus Christ;
rest your weary ones;
bless your dying ones;
soothe your suffering ones;
pity your afflicted ones;
shield your joyous ones;
and all for your love’s sake.

Amen.

When Amy brought home a card from Tennessee Bayou, I knew we’d have to give it a try. This is a local couple that have decided they’d like to start a restaurant. I’ve seen more restaurants come and go in the 12 years we’ve been back here than I can count, but the Byfords have a good business plan. Customers first, then a restaurant. You can’t yet go to them, they come to you.

They do this by cooking one lunch plate per day and bringing it to your home or office. I asked them to bring a menu to my office and before I had a chance to look at it, the office staff ordered Wednesday’s menu, which was Tenderloin/Sausage (a large piece of pork tenderloin with a piece of sausage in the middle) smothered squash & potatoes, a roll, chocolate pie and a drink. Go ahead, price that if you cooked it yourself. How about if you went out to eat? Did you guess $5 for either of those?

I imagine Tennessee Bayou will have to go up on their prices some as they increase, but their food, so far has been excellent. The day after Epiphany, the menu included King Cake, and King Ranch Casserole, so I had to order for the family. King Casserole is a basic chicken, tortilla,  cheese casserole that had all the great fat you need for a winter day, and the portions were insanely large. We ordered for six and had enough left over to feed another six. It came with green beans and a roll and a King cake that I think I will ask for again on Fat Tuesday.

Kevin Byford  and his wife do all the cooking and delivery. Kevin is from Louisiana and many of the recipes come from his mother. He and The rest is fairly common southern food. Yesterday the menu was Hamburger Steak, Mashed Potatoes, a roll and white cake. Other items this month include shoulder roast, meat loaf, and white beans. It’s the cajun inspired items that I’m most looking forward to trying:  Shrimp and Chicken Stew, Shrimp Etoufee and Cajun Jambalaya will make me consider ordering more often than I probably should.

I’m not going to post the numbers to call them here, but if you’re in the Henderson, TN area and want to know more, drop me a message through Facebook or email and I’ll get you more info. Wednesday is Shrimp & Chicken Stew, so I will be looking forward to supporting Tennessee Bayou next week.