Anne Marie Miller

Blog

  • i like michael moore (part 1)

    before the political comments start, let me go ahead and thwart them by saying i don’t necessarily agree with mikey’s views on a lot of things. i did see sicko, i did enjoy it, and actually do agree with most of which he conveys in that documentary.

    anyway, i am not here to argue healthcare. i am here to restate my title: i like michael moore.

    why do i like him?

    because he is passionate. he is persistent. and he is intolerant. he stands up for what he believes in and doesn’t let people with other opinions stop him from pursuing change. yes, he lacks tact and grace, but we all have our flaws.

    i think the church could learn from michael moore. too often, we sit back. we are passive. we give up. we tolerantly accept culture and in extreme cases, bow to it. we talk about the things we believe in, but we don’t act on it enough. oh, and often, we lack tact and grace. (i know i do).

    people with unwavering passion challenge my contentedness. they move me to action. they stir my spirit. people like michael moore make me realize that i have been inactive for far too long.

  • you’ve been prayed for

    if you’re reading this, you’ve been prayed for.

    granted, i don’t know everyone who reads this blog by name. those of you i do, i’ve prayed for you. those of you i don’t, i’ve prayed for you, too.

    every once in a while i have a really hard time sleeping so for the last hour or so, i really felt like i should lift you up in prayer.

    some of you i know are going through really tough times – health stuff, church staff stuff, upcoming mission trips, already on mission trips, family problems, depression problems, money problems, loneliness, work stress, transitions in life, your kids, your friends…those are just a few specific things that have been lifted up.

    insomnia’s not always a bad thing i guess. i hope you all have a splendid tuesday.

  • Finished with Fat Ragamuffin

    This will be my last “Fat Ragamuffin” update (I hope!)

    If you are new here, you are probably thinking, “Now, what the heck is a Fat Ragamuffin? Sounds tasty though…” A few months ago, I really wanted to get into shape. So did my friend Los. And a bunch of other people (listled on his blog). We were supposed to post our weight weekly for a certain amount of time.

    You can click the “Fat Ragamuffin” category link and see how I progressed but I am proud to report I have consistently (that is the key word!) maintained my goal weight (140ish) for the last two months and plan on keeping it that way. So, Mr. Ragamuffin Soul, I ask that I graduate from your FR class blogroll. Please send me a diploma.

    Below is the progress…it takes time!! It takes effort!! And it will continue to do so.

    9/4/06=167
    1/1/07=162
    1/8/07=159
    1/15/07=158
    1/22/07=156
    1/31/07=154
    2/6/07=152
    2/13/07=150
    2/27/07=149
    3/7/07=146
    5/27/07=142
    6/27/07=138
    7/16/07=135
    9/4/07=130
    10/7/07=130
    2/28/08=130 (going strong!)
    9/28/09=138 (Been floating at 135-140 for the last three months – time to gear up!!)

    Thank you, and good night.

  • addiction

    90%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

    [ht: moviepastor]

    You?

  • grace is not my middle name

    grace is not my middle name, and i mean that both literally and figuratively.

    literally, i trip over myself or run into something at least five times a day. this makes for unsightly bruising and honestly, the occassional swear word may or may not slip out, depending on the severity of the blow. our coffee table is made of stone and has sharp iron edges. it does not feel good on the side of a bony knee.

    figuratively, giving grace out is something very difficult for me. i have the worst tail-gating, excuse-me, did-you-just-cut-me-off driving temper. i’m still in that “everything is black and white” mindset and although there are just a few things that really get under my skin, when one of those things is provoked, my heart turns a wicked shade of puke green and tightens up into a mean little offended ball, pumping all the blood to my brain, where thoughts [of jealousy, pride, anger] stew and boil much like the second witch describes in shakespeare’s macbeth:

    Fillet of a fenny snake,
    In the cauldron boil and bake;
    Eye of newt and toe of frog,
    Wool of bat and tongue of dog,
    Adder’s fork and blind-worm’s sting,
    Lizard’s leg and owlet’s wing,
    For a charm of powerful trouble,
    Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.

    pretty, isn’t it?

    i have been extended grace in so many ways by so many people. in my earlier blogging years, when i was even more idealistic and black and white than i am now, i made some extremely “passioniate” comments on other peoples’ blogs. fortunately, most of these people still talk to me; some even going beyond that and dare i say – befriending me?

    marie is my middle name. i researched the origin of it and evidently the closest theory they can find for the meaning is “sea of bitterness” which actually seems more fitting to my current struggle. however, i also just researched the meaning of my first name, anne, which happens to be a french version of hannah, which means “grace.”

    doh. it looks like i need to resolve my dual personalities…

  • Tell me what you want, what you really really want…

    First of all, thank you to everyone who has helped promote Mad Church Disease. I think we will cross the 1000 survey mark before tomorrow and it has only been a week since the site launched. This could NOT have been done without you.

    Anyway, I just finished my first outline for the book as part of the proposal going to some publishers. Before I finalize it, I want to make sure I’m not leaving out anything-as I’ve mentioned before – this isn’t just a book that I’m writing about what I think-I want to make sure that it is meeting as many needs that I am searching for as many answers as possible.

    So, if you have any thoughts on what you?d like to see in the book, now is your time!

    Let me know in the comments on the Mad Church Disease blog.

    Also…this would be a great opportunity to solicit feedback from YOUR readers. Many of them have completed surveys but I don’t want their participation to end there. If you feel so inclined, please take this time to email them, or to blog about this, and point them to the MCD blog as I’d love for them to continue contributing to the content of the book as well.

    I’m closing comments on this particular post in order to keep all the feedback on this topic over at the Mad Church Disease blog. I’ll see you over there — and remember — there are no stupid ideas!!

    If you are really thinking about something, ask!

  • on adulthood

    i love being an adult. it means that as i am toasting my turkey sandwich in our toaster oven, i can eat my ben & jerry’s first.

  • immeasurable

    Main Entry: Summer
    Part of Speech: Noun
    Definition: Season
    Synonyms: Watermelon. Cookouts. Camps. Fireworks. Plummeting Offerings. Low Attendance.
    Source: American Church Innovative? Thesaurus, First Edition (v 1.0)

    Growing up a PK, I remember my dad “saving up” for the summer months, knowing we’d have 1/2 to 2/3 of our normal attendance, and even a smaller percentage of those people giving. Bills still had to be paid. He still had to be paid. We still had to eat.

    Fast forward to now. Four years in full time church-staff ministry. Like clockwork, attendance declines. Budgets are put on spending Red Alerts. And every year we try to develop a solution to break out of the logical and predictible facts of church life.

    Last night, I had some time to drive around one of my favorite parts of Dallas while waiting to pick up a friend from the airport. The houses, artistically designed, beautifully landscaped. My old Pontiac, sandwiched by two new Mercedes as we crawled down the narrow but heavily traveled Mockingbird Lane at 20 mph.

    I saw two ladies crossing the street, deeply involved in conversation. Did they go to church anywhere? Did they miss the music and the message on Sunday? Maybe they were the church, wearing work out clothes with messy hair. They were sharing life with each other, it was obvious.

    A million different scenarios played out in my mind as I watched them while I was stopped at a red light. They could be the church right now. But they aren’t ending up on any attendance record.

    I’m sure like many other churches out there, weekly – maybe monthly – those of you who are on staff get to hear the “numbers”…This year…Last year…What was the weather like? How come more people aren’t coming? Oh, holiday weekend. Or maybe everyone was on the lake.

    7:30 pm rolls around, and I pick up my friend from the airport. We head out and meet up with my friend Andrew. We go into a local tattoo parlor, where she gets her nose pierced. We hang out with a big tattoo artist named Dutch and laugh with him as he’s made another tattoo artist scream in pain (evidently on purpose) while getting some coloring done. Then we go across the street to a greasy-but-so-delicious sports bar for some late night fat intake. We talk about roommates, Kansas, New York, Texas, corn allergies.

    We were the church, but unless Snuffer’s takes a secret count for the different churches we attend, we didn’t end up on any attendance sheet.

    I realize this has become quite a lengthy post, and that I am constantly breaking my own blogging rules of brevity. But this time, I do it unapologetically so.

    As the events of last night blurred together when I feel asleep (far later than I should have) and as I reflect on them collectively now, I realize that although not a bad thing, measuring weekly church attendance isn’t really a fair representation of truth.

    You can measure how many people breeze in and out of your doors at specfic times on the weekend. You can count up the tear-off cards and find out how many of them are “first time visitors” to your church. And sure, maybe it will help you see if you are being “successful” numerically.

    But how can you really define that term “success?” When really what is more important than how many seats you have filled up on Sunday is what is going on OUTSIDE of your doors on a rainy Thursday night, much like last night.

    Where is your church then? Working late? Fighting? Loving? Serving? Being Christ to the World?

    Keeping track of your numbers on the weekend is a great tool for measuring. I guess I’m just not quite sure what we’re measuring.

  • interaction soapbox

    Since announcing mad church disease, I’ve gotten a little more email than i normally would with people sharing their stories more indepthly, or sharing their thoughts on the book. It has been great to meet a lot of new people and if you have emailed me in the last couple of weeks and have not received a reply – I’m working on it – i promise!

    Gmail actually locked me out from sending email earlier this week since i had emailed my entire address book of 566 people. evidently that makes me a spammer so they put your account on hold! anyway i have 12 emails remaining to respond to…and i thank you for waiting as i will write back.

    however, after responding to some earlier emails, I’ve received a couple of replies like this back:

    Wow…I have to say I did not expect a response.

    i must say i am a little shocked to get a message from you.

    Now, this goes back to my soapbox on “three reasons i’ll ditch your feed” and “three reasons i’ll fancy your feed” – INTERACTION.

    while i may not respond to EVERY comment on this blog, I do try and respond to people who are new, or have a question, or been generous in their time and shared something with me. Please don’t misread this as my attempt to claim some nonexistent blogging bragging right, but a little something I’d like to call COMMON SENSE.

    When I spoke further with one of the people who said one of the comments above, he said:

    …I personally can?t stand it when people do not respond to me…

    Dude, I feel the same way. That is why I try (keyword: try) to do something different.

    I really think it’s a priority thing, and that’s okay. Some people have way more to worry about than blogging or responding. Maybe I’m lucky that I just have a full time job, a family, friends, and some side projects and nothing too crazy going on. But in all honesty, the people who read, comment and respond to things on my blog – you guys rock my world and I try (unsuccessfully at times) to not be just another virtual person…

    As ridiculously cheesy as it sounds, I love our relationships and our interaction. It really is very important to me. I know I feel valued when someone replies back to a comment I’ve made or an email I’ve sent.

    So – what do you think? Are you “shocked” when someone responds to something you’ve said on a blog or on email? Do you expect it?