Anne Marie Miller

Blog

  • stereotype

    some friends and i were talking today about the stereotypical contemporary church pastor. the summary of our statements was:

    Pastors-With-Shiny-Heads-Or-Just-Have-Cool-
    Spiky-Hair-And-A-Goatee-Sporting-Rob-Bell-Type-
    Rimmed-Glasses-Who-Wear-Embroidered-
    Flowery-Shirts-And-Dirty-Washed-Dark-
    Denim-Jeans-On-Stage

    now please know, we say this in total jest. you have to admit…it’s pretty close to truth!

    anyway, this got me thinking how easy it was to come up with this stereotype and it made me want to take it a step further. i wonder now, how would we stereotype the contemporary church?

    so, based on the culture we live in today, the cards from churches you get in the mail, the signs you see, the stuff you might watch flipping through TV or see on the shelves at a bookstore…if you were to walk into a modern, American church today…

    what would you expect? what kind of stereotypes have been created, and how true are they? good? bad? ugly? who cares?

  • explore your feminine side

    (disclaimer: i realize i don’t have a blogroll. reasons for this being one… i am too chicken to deal with the drama and gnashing of teeth that sometimes results from having said blogroll, and two…ok, there’s really just one reason. now that i have labeled myself a hypocrite, let’s continue, shall we?)

    i am subscribed to 80ish blogs, but peruse so many more when time allows. i do love the blogroll feature and would not have found many of your blogs otherwise. it also allows me to see what kind of stuff you like to read and in turn inspires me on what to write.

    mandatory introductory paragraph aside, there is a SERIOUS lack of estrogen on ministry blogrolls. i know there are a ton of great women out there who blog about ministry, but why the heck aren’t they showing up on anyone’s link love?

    most pastorish types have links to the other pastorish types from those churches that make it on the lists of which (in good humor and love) i like to poke fun (please also note: the church i am employed at was on two of those lists, therefore allowing me such a right). occasionally i’ll see a few ladies sprinkled in, but seriously – where is the love?

    who are some female bloggers you like reading? DON’T KEEP THEM TO YOURSELF! show them a little link love. i am having a hard time finding their blogs, so my challenge to you is this…add some estrogen to your blogroll!

    bring on the girl power… what girls are you linking up? and no, that is not a euphemism, dirty.

  • happy 500th! (almost)

    as i was linking up the last post, i realized…wow, i am almost at 500 posts! this one is #494 (including all private ones).

    if we were all together geographically and it was a milestone event, we would of course throw a party, right?

    i’m left wondering, what should we do for post #500? my mind goes to the easy “donate $500” to a worthy cause (which, by the way, those of you who ordered “be” the church shirts – they are printing now and will be on their way soon along with thank you notes from the family you helped!)

    …but this little blog wouldn’t have gotten near 500 posts if it wasn’t for YOU…all of you…lurkers and all…(ahem. cough, cough. reveal thyself.)

    my resolution: starting post #501 i will be using proper capitalization.

    i am personally all up for people sending me airline tickets and going out to meet as many of you as possible. but that’s a little egotistical and selfish, ain’t it? :) anyway, do you have suggestions for what to do to celebrate the big #500?

    (on a side note, flowerdust.net has had a little makeover. if you’re an rss reader, click here to see it! if you’re not, make sure you hit refresh and see the new look!)

  • change the world today

    today…

    what can you do, wherever you are, to make the world a better place?

  • spoiled rotten & rambling

    it seems as most of my adult life, i’ve had a laptop, usually work-provided. the same was true with my current job, except i was extremely spoiled. i had an iMac desktop AND an HP laptop. but, as part of the focus of my position changed, the laptop was put to use in a more effective way (meaning its owner as of a few months ago was no longer yours truly.)

    first, i went through a freaking out period. i had no other computer at home except the laptop. my phone (which is back in working order, yay!) has microsoft word and email on it, but could i really write a book using those little letters on the keyboard?

    fortunately, a friend saw my need and let me borrow a mac mini (and another friend lent all the peripherals) so at least i had something at home until i got my big fat (realistic and very modest) book advance (which one must have a publisher in order to get) and with that advance (from currently up in the air publisher), a new laptop would be purchased.

    as fortunate as i am to have such generous friends, my mind is not being so generous with sharing its creativity with me. i realize how spoiled rotten i have become with mobility and technology…the fact i am confined to my little ikea chair (which after sitting on for any extended amount of time will lower slowly…slowly…until one is awkwardly low to the ground)…and the gentle whirring and humming of my borrowed CRT monitor has somehow convinced me that i need the mobility in order to be productive. that i cannot be in one spot all the time and be productive.

    which is a lie.

    but is still very hard for my personality to sit in one place…especially when the cats jump up on the keyboard and what was an intelligible sentence turns into someiopdufthing lik3897e thcjjlskis.

    all of this nonsensical rambling (which should have been put towards book-use) to ask for your prayers…i have a deadline in less than two weeks…i am struggling on a part of the proposal…my brain is fried…

  • dreams (part 2 of 2)…i think

    i never really finished the dream thing. there was this great thought behind it but being an overanalyzer, i pretty much sunk it. however, this post is about dreams too…so, i figured what the heck. my personality is one that won’t let a “1 of 2” go incomplete, so here is 2 of 2. :)

    yesterday, i was wiped. putting someone with ADD (no, really, i have it) in a big dark room to watch people talk for 8 hours day (the leadership summit) can be challenging. thursday ended great with marcus buckingham – he’s truly captivating to watch as a public speaker so i was feeling pretty alive after his session. however, yesterday morning, my friend lauren and i decided to hit starbucks early before the summit started. we are not morning people. but i wouldn’t have traded the time i spent with her for sleep…she is incredible!

    anyway, we ended up coming in about 45 minutes late, and although i enjoyed all of the sessions, especially john ortberg’s, my brain was toast. i went home and crashed on the couch for a couple of hours.

    and i had an interesting dream. i dreamt i was out with a friend and he felt like he needed to get some kind of vision or something from god. we were on a beach, and he decided the best way to do this was to swim out from the shore, into the deeper area, and wait for a big wave to smack him and carry him off somewhere. (yes, i realize this is weird)…so he does just that.

    i wait and wait and wait getting a little worried after the wave did take him off, but soon enough, he swam back to the shore and flopped onto the beach, completely exhausted. i asked him what he learned. by the time he could catch his breath, he told me,

    “i realized you don’t have to do something huge in order to find out what god’s trying to tell you. in fact, it was really stupid. i could have died…and now i’m just completely exhausted.”

    then i looked up and saw two butterflies…one was real, and one was a kite. i don’t think they had anything to do with the story…

    but my imaginary dream-friend has some good points…

    1) god doesn’t have to hit you upside the head in a big way to communicate with you

    2) don’t do stupid things that can distract you, waste your time, and end up leaving you exhausted so you can’t do what it is you’re supposed to do

    3) after being swept out, he had to swim farther and against the tide in order to get back where he should have been in the first place.

    i don’t know about you, but this dream is really applicable to me now. pretty cool.

  • you get what you wish for

    i needed control over my email…so, i made a separate email account giving very, very, very limited people access to it. my other account (the one most people have and that is linked on my blog) i’ll check and respond every so often. problem solved, right?

    no. this did not remove my addiction, my need, to check my email. most of the time, i check it on my phone. i have turned into quite the text-messenger too. so, the heart issue of the condition – my need to constantly be plugged in – was NOT resolved.

    until today.

    my cell phone (the account, not the actual phone) has stopped working. no phone calls. no texts. no internet.

    thank you, cingular-now named at&t-for forcing me not to be able to check my email 1238 times during the leadership summit.

    and, uh, if you need to reach me…um, good luck. the best way is to probably comment here. i have no idea (nor do they) when the issue will be fixed.

    huzzah!

    freedom forced by technology.

  • |block|

    having huge (blogging) writer’s block. brain empty. the last two days, we got to have the honor of this young man staying with us. never met him before in my life. and yes mom, that means we let a stranger stay with us. he only made off with the tv and one of the cats. he is actually quite fantastic. and that new bio picture over there (click here for you rss people), he took that for me, with some more i’ll get to posting one day.

    anyway, since i can’t come up with much to write about right now, i thought i’d ask you guys a question. if you could meet three people in the bloggoland, who would they be? and please, do not say “you, flowerdust. of course, you” unless you mean it. my feelings won’t be hurt. i’ll post mine soon…

    happy thursday!

  • attempts at simple – tip 2 – confess & unsubscribe

    first: the confession

    i have a prescription. i take it every night with my sleeping pill. the instructions? take daily for stress. yup. and guess what the first question my doctor always asks me when i visit…“how’s your stress level?”

    to be honest, i am not doing very well with this whole “simplification” process. granted, i have cut out a few things. but after a routine doctor’s appointment yesterday (for an asthma check up), my respiratory therapist flips through some stuff and gets concerned that my resting heart rate is never, ever below 80. it usually is in the 90-100 range. and when i exercise, a good five minutes in and i’m already hitting 180-190. i joke it’s easier for me to do cardio that way. he gives me a dirty look.

    if you know me personally, you know i can be pretty intense. hyper-esque? tightly wound? i’m not really sure how to describe me. “cracked out” was the term i used yesterday when i was talking with our worship pastor, danny. to quote him on part of our conversation, “oh i get it – i thought you might be burning out because of this big book project on burn-out…writing a book definitely does not fit under ‘simplification.’”

    yeeeeah.

    so, i will be doing more pruning…and not putting so much pressure on this book thing.

    ======

    second: the tip

    email is my addiction, my weakness, and my biggest enemy. it’s the first thing i check when i wake up and usually the last thing i check before i go to bed. i have it on my phone too, just in case i am more than four feet away from a computer at anytime.

    lately, i’ve noticed what i will call an email explosion in my inbox. lots of questions, comments, book stuff, thoughts, and things i really need to respond to. to help navigate through all the email i have done one thing that has helped a ton…

    UNSUBSCRIBE.

    goodbye pottery barn, ikea, white fence, west elm, overnight prints, feedblitz, blockbuster, etc., etc., etc. anytime i get a promotional email now, i unsubscribe. it has helped some. if i can’t live without it, i subscribe under another email account i have just for that purpose.

    however…or should i say…HOWEVER…i am still finding myself overwhelmed. fifty-some-odd emails a day (and please, if one of them is yours, do not feel guilty!) and i am having a very difficult time finding the time necessary to respond.

    i used to think pastors who had assistants email for them was really dumb. now i give them the biggest props for being able to let go…i would totally dig an email assistant to help me organize and reply to the ones who maybe didn’t necessarily need a personal response.

    but oh, therein lies the dilemma. i pride myself on the personal response.

    oh, there’s my problem.

    hmm. your turn to give me some advice…