My wife and I being silly for an announcements video that our church does to let people know what’s going on in our church and church family.

Not sure if you can tell in the video, but it was FREEZIN’ that day in Bargersville. After needing at least a half-dozen takes for the last scene, I could barely let go of the pitch fork because I couldn’t bend my fingers.

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I grew up in the Nazarene church and come from a fairly long line of Nazarene pastors in my family (dad, grandfather, great-greatfather and both brothers). I guess I was somewhat of the black-sheep in that I knew I had no desire whatsoever to become a pastor, becoming a missionary was a possibility at one time though. Still active in the church though, so I’m thankful for my spiritual heritage.

Instead I’m active on the Internet and trying to keep a pulse on what’s happening online and with social media. It made me happy to hear that Bryon McLaughlin has setup NazareneBlogs.org to give a place for Nazarenes all over the world to have a blog of their own in a community of fairly like-minded people.

I think this is a great idea, and the thought then crossed my mind to go purchase lots of other domains like baptistblogs.org, catholicblogs.org, etc., etc.

I’m still reading a bit about what they’re doing and how they are going to accomplish things. I’m hoping they handle it a bit like a network and feature blogs in their community somehow, perhaps even a combined RSS feed would be nice.

For individuals just getting started into blogging and don’t want to worry about setting up the technical requirements and managing all the behind the scenes stuff, blogging on sites like this makes it super-easy for them. If anyone then wants to move on to their own completely managed blog, because they’re using WordPress, they can easily export and restore all their content onto their own domain at some point in the future.

For pastors and church leaders that are looking for an easy way to setup a website for their church, they should look into using the WordPress platform as a CMS (Content Management System) as well. If you’re reading this and interested, just let me know. I have quite a bit of experience setting up websites for churches and ministry organizations and now host about 30+ websites and blogs on the WordPress platform.

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I’m not going to tell you who to vote for next month. I’m not going to tell you that you are or are not a Christian because you vote for one candidate over another. I’m not going to tell you that this country will be amazingly different if one candidate wins over another.

What I will implore you to do is to just be informed of what’s been going on the last few years and review the information that’s available to either prove or disprove what both sides are saying.

I have not personally reviewed each of these items, but merely share it as a point of introducing new information and potentially getting people to question and wonder a little more about what they may not be hearing from other sources.

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My challenge right now though still remains as to whether or not we really know and understand what poverty is in this country. Don’t get me wrong, I know and realize there are people in this country that are impoverished.

Wikipedia defines impoverished as:

Poverty (also called penury) is deprivation of common necessities that determine the quality of life, including food, clothing, shelter and safe drinking water, and may also include the deprivation of opportunities to learn, to obtain better employment to escape poverty, and/or to enjoy the respect of fellow citizens.

That’s pretty clear to me and there’s opportunity for us to do what we can to make a difference.

Extending the question further given the political activity currently going on, do I think it’s the government’s responsibility to fix or improve poverty in the United States. Let’s look at each defining item in the definition above:

• food & water - should the government guarantee food for everyone? Perhaps indirectly. I would say the government should have involvement in making sure that the food that is produced and sold in America is safe and reliable for people to eat. I don’t believe it’s the government’s job to staff and provide the meals themselves. I believe they shouldn’t get in the way of organizations (civic, faith-based, private, commercial) that are providing that effort.
• clothing – similar to food, is it the government’s job to clothe every US citizen? I don’t believe so. I believe Americans have more clothes in their drawers and closets that if they would just be generous enough, nobody in this country should be going without clothing. For that matter most of them would probably be wearing name brand designer clothes even.
• shelter – this may be the perfect example of why it’s not the government’s responsibility to provide shelter. I believe the confusion for the last few decades is that the it was "?life, liberty, home and happiness". Owning a home could be the worst decision for some individuals and families in their current situation. I believe the government’s involvement should only be that of insuring the economy in general is strong enough to support the business of lending and finance with integrity and honesty.
• education – education is actually one area I do believe the government has a major role to play. However, I don’t believe it’s in actually administering or running individual schools. I believe the only purpose of government in the educational process is to define and enforce the standards nationally that ensure when we say someone is "educated" we know what we mean and can agree on the basic requirements of the process.
• employment – here’s another area where there may be some need for government involvement, but I believe it’s only in the areas of making the economy strong and safe for businesses of ALL sizes to flourish and thrive so they can pay their employees an honest and fair wage.
• respect – here’s another area where there should be government involvement to a degree. I believe this should be covered under similar employment laws. People should have the security of knowing they won’t be attacked or harassed because of their race, creed, beliefs or heritage.

Do we have a poverty problem in this country. Sure. Is it the government’s responsibility to fix it? For the most part I’d say no. That leaves it up to you and me and the organizations we’re a part of and support. What do you do to help?

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I just found out he reads my blog, which shouldn’t really surprise me but it made me think.

Do I post stuff I wouldn’t want my pastor to read?

I don’t think I do or would. I’m generally unconcerned with what people think about what I think. Does it make a difference?

I know it was a little thought-inspiring when I found out some members of my extended family read my blog. I know they don’t understand how I think or why many times.

The question still remains. Will I blog any differently knowing my pastor is reading?

Would or do you blog differently if your pastor or family read your blog?

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