Today’s topic:  the switch from mailed newsletters to electronically delivered newsletters.

This all started several years ago when I was on the synod council. The money was tight and the office was looking for a way to save a few bucks. Coincidently, we were discussing the rising costs of sending out the synod newsletter.

Not long afterward the synod sent out an e-mail with a link to the newsletter. Sure, enough the missal in a pdf file popped up on the screen with all the pictures and text.  But I did not print it off.

In succeeding months I became painfully aware that the newsletter arrived regularly to my inbox, and I regularly left it until a more opportune time for reading. However, while waiting for a more opportune time the e-mail dropped out of the window and therefore out of mind. I realized that when mailed as a hard copy, the newsletter may lie on my desk, but I was more likely to pick it up during a spare moment and read it.

In the past months more and more organizations have converted to the electronic newsletter. No paper costs. No postage costs. No collators. Huge time savings.  Oakwood went digital. The University of Minnesota Alumni Association went digital. The Association of Church Musicians went digital. And more.

So, I wonder, is it worth it.  Certainly the cost savings play a huge part in the decision. But do they get read?  Printed? Or do they remain as a heading in the inbox eventually floating down to oblivion.

I’d love to hear form you. What do you think about electronic newsletters? Do you read them? E-mail me at pastorb@oslc-elca.org.

Pastor B.

 

I remember the feeling like it was yesterday. My junior year of high school was the time and place.  I wasn't wearing a belt. I'd simply forgotten to put it on that morning.  When I walked out of English class the principal was walking by. Fear.

If you're old enough to remember school dress codes you may empathize with the fear. I was not wearing "tennis" shoes. I was not wearing a hat in school. So I was safe on those "do not" commandments. However, I was a scofflaw on the "do" commandment." Do wear a belt.

I managed to get through the day without a visit to the principal's office or an order for detention. The incident came to mind a few days ago when I attended a legislative advocacy program in Madison. In the afternoon we all had the opportunity to meet with our senator and assemblyperson. I met with Senator Mark Miller and his aide, and I met with the aide of Assemblyman Keith Ripp. In each case it became clear that the whole idea of proper dress has been lost in a dumpster somewhere.

Senator Miller's aide was wearing a shirt that looked as though maybe he'd been sleeping in it. (I should note that the senator was in a suit and tie.) In fact, he may have been wearing that for an entire week.

Rigg was a no show. (I expect all the Republican legislators found someplace else that needed them badly once they discovered a bunch of liberal church people were about to descend upon the capitol.) His aide, by the name of Tyler, was able to somehow pull himself up from his desk to greet the three of us who finally found room 3N. Tyler sported a worn t-shirt that said "Aerosmith" or "Ambercrombee" on the front. He had faded jeans and hiking boots.  He looked like he was all ready to take out the garbage.

Frankly, I was offended. Both legislators and their aides knew we were coming. I think their slovingliness sent the message that they didn't really care about anything we had to say. I think we dress in proportion to the way we think about our guests. I'm not saying they need to be in tuxes, I would have been pleased with what today we call "business casual".

I am left with two possibilities. Are the dress expectations of the early 21^st century so lax that no one really cares anymore? Or, do these two legislative aides really think that poorly of the church as an advocat for the poor?

Pastor B.

 

Is anyone else out there frustrated with watching the ads pop up in the bottom corner of the television screen?  It is driving me nuts.

It all started when networks added their logo to the corner.  I suppose this "watermark" was initially placed to help prevent illegal copying and selling of broadcast material.  The network logo would make it obvious that you simply copied the program on your VCR.

From this innocent yet annoying beginning has come another vehicle for marketing.  Usually networks promote their own programming. Right in the middle of a dramatic sequence Kyra Sedgwick suddenly appears with hair blowing in the wind.

Advertisers for products have joined in. Air fresheners come to mind as a pop up added commercial.  Sometimes there's something going on in both corners.  What an intrusion!

I have an idea. While the preacher is delivering a sermon about God's love and forgiveness we can have someone over by the choir risers holding up a sign advertising deodorant.  Or, while we ask for the Lord's mercy on the Kyrie, a sign can pop up by the side of the chancel telling you the title of the upcoming sermon.  During the offering we could have something going on both sides of the altar - one for an upcoming youth fund raiser and one teaser for next week's adult Bible study on sex in the Song of Songs.

Well, maybe not.

Pastor B.

A few weeks ago the comic strip Non-Sequiter featured Danae, a young girl who thinks she’s smarter than the rest of the world and occasionally is.  As a comment on all the political hyperbole of our media frenzied era, she suggested that we should have a day when everyone just shuts up.  I say, “Three cheers for Danea, the comic character with a skull on her shirt.”I enjoy politics. I really do. But somewhere along the line diatribe, sound bites, and hyperbole stepped in an evicted discourse, debated and reasoned thought.  When Rush Limbaugh can even be considered a legitimate political voice, you know you’ve got problems.  When you can watch Keith Oberman’s Countdown three times in an evening, you know there’s something wrong in the way we do politics.President Obama was elected with the hope that the pompous politicos who will say almost anything to get their face on TV or the internet would see the wisdom of the American people and tone it down.  To his credit, our President seems to want to distance himself from the manure throwing.  I pray he can keep the course.  Maybe, just maybe, the media starved will follow along.For now, we’re stuck with overstated, polarizing speech makers who never saw a microphone or camera that wasn’t an opportunity to blather. And we’re stuck with journalists who seldom check facts and easily allow politicians to avoid answering hard questions by simply reciting pre-planned talking points.  And we’re stuck with a generation or two of young people who think that this is the way America is supposed to work.At the end of the comic strip where Danea suggests a National Shut Up Day for political speech, her dad suggest a National Shut Up Week.  Anybody want to suggest a month?       

 

It's been a few weeks since the red hearts and boxes of chocolate highlighted Valentine's Day, but I'll use this space to comment anyway.

The weekend of February 14 included Valentine's Day everywhere and ESPN Gameday here in Madison. Both events again brought home our overwhelming love of celebrities.  Gameday included the big names of Bobby Knight (former Indiana basketball coach) and Digger Phelps (Notre Dame).  The local media announced it over and over again.  People went out of their way, changed their schedules, and planned their parties around being close to the nationally broadcast (can you say that cable is "broadcast"?) ESPN sports event.  The fact that the hoops college coach celebrities were in Madison was a bigger event than the game.

On Friday my grandson, Branden, had his Valentine's party in school. When I had a chance to look at the cards he had in his Valentine bag (Whatever happened to shoeboxes?)  I noted two major changes from my kid's school days.  One was the candy this "holiday" produces.  It was almost as sugar filled as Halloween.  But the thing that hit me the most was that most of the simple cards carried a celebrity.  Miley Cyrus (aka. Hannah Montana) was there.  Spiderman. Ironman. Spongebob. Somebody from High School Musical 3. To third graders these are all celebrities, and the need to have these stars inolved early in our children's lives eventually feeds into the celebrity culture that transfixes adults.

The trouble with celebrity culture is that it has no value.  An entertainer like Miley Cyrus may have value in entertaining us, in bringing her talent into our lives as something to enjoy, to appreciate, or even to learn from.  But Hannah Montana on a Valentine card has no value other than celebrity status.

We live in a very strange world.

Pastor B.