​I know there are responses to such a statement as this, but I call your attention to the only in parentheses.  Yes, I realize that the football program is a great source of income.  And yes, I know much of the school spirit comes from a strong football program, especially in our band of the country.

Speaking of band, does the football team ever attend cheerleading or band competitions?  Do the players ever don their uniforms and lug all of their equipment to one of these to support the students and teachers who support them under the Friday night lights?  It just doesn't happen.

Do the patrons attend basketball and soccer contests as they do football?  Do they equally cheer for the girls' teams as they do for the boys?  Are elementary and middle school functions equally important?
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Do administrators and school boards spend as much of the budget to support the drama program, the academic team, or the science fair?  Is transportation provided to these, or do parents pay the bill separately?  Does anyone rally the media and the business community to charter buses to support other programs in the school with the same exuberance as the football program?

I'm not just asking; I know the answers to these questions as much as the next guy.

Yeah, I know the answers, and I get it.  It's just like our economy:  it's survival of the fittest, supply and demand.  If you brought in as much money, community support, interest, and excitement as the football program, you would get the same love the football team gets.  If there was more demand for your non-football program, you would get more supply in return.  Yeah, I get it.

But that doesn't mean I like it.  I'm just saying that the underdogs need some attention, too, and we just don't give it to them.  Other programs need accolades, too.  Other kids need to feel like winners when they are winners, too.  I could go off on sports in general, but that's not what this is.  In a world where self-esteem is supposedly so important, how are successful kids with different skill sets supposed to feel when it is only the big guy with the shoulder pads who gets lifted on the team's shoulders?

We should do better.

​The church of Christ in Carthage, Missouri, is conducting an adult class about church history.  We're calling it FIRST2000, because this class is about the first two millennia after the death of Christ.  This post is intended to be a supplement to the class and the handouts.  Below, you will find mostly visual aids and links.  Feel free to look in on our live class at the church building.

There are others, of course, who nudged the Reformation along during this century, but it was not until some realized that reformation of church dogma as it had become could not be adequate until restoration of the church of the First Century was embraced.  Things didn't need to be rearranged.  Some concepts and practices needed to be eliminated altogether, and others needed to be restored to their original intent and practice.  The best thing to do was study the Scripture, allow the Bible to interpret itself.  We, in the church of Christ believe in the following:

​The church of Christ in Carthage, Missouri, is conducting an adult class about church history.  We're calling it FIRST2000, because this class is about the first two millennia after the death of Christ.  This post is intended to be a supplement to the class and the handouts.  Below, you will find mostly visual aids and links.  Feel free to look in on our live class at the church building.

In this section of our study, we will look at three men who stand out as wanting to do better.  The claims of Peter Waldo, John Wycliffe, and Jan Hus stand to say, No more!  Their ideas of returning to Scripture and the way the church was "before" are pivotal in inspiring others (and especially the Reformers) to act against error.  But there is a difference in what these forerunners to Reformation and the Reformers themselves do and restoring the Lord's church to the original design in the Bible.

The crusades of the Middle Ages confound us today.  Often we do not understand much beyond the mythology behind King Arthur and Robin Hood.  Sometimes we romanticize the period with images of knights on white horses and jousting reenactments at local Renaissance Fairs.  But there really were crusades, much referred to as holy wars, and that is where the confounding lies:  how could "holy" men fight such brutal battles in such barbaric fashion?

It's not that simple, and there are plenty of rabbits to chase in a study of the period.  Today, however, let's remove some of the basics to look through them and get more of an understanding of what was happening religiously during these, the times surrounding the Dark Ages.  Much of what follows is simply visual aid and video support for our class, and for full explanations attendance in our adult class would be beneficial for the curious in this regard.

​First, we study the Great Schism that divided adherents to Easter Orthodoxy from the adherents to what becomes Roman Catholicism in and round the year  of AD 1054.

​The division of language at this time is also worthy of mention, as the Eastern Orthodox was a Greek-based religion and the Roman Catholics transfer to a Latin-based presentation.

Islam was also on the rise, and the Crusades are fought to squelch the influence of an aggressive religion.  We will break these down a bit more in class, but I will plant a video here that might help us along.

​I can't stand the smell of coffee.  Well, can't stand is probably a little harsh, but let's say I find it nasty smelling.  I don't know why anyone would pour something as foul as coffee over their taste buds.

But that's not what this is about.

I just find it in bad form for a teacher to do a recess, cafeteria, or a dismissal duty while also sipping a beverage - coffee or otherwise - from a cup in hand. First, did you bring enough for everyone?  Second, how dependent are you on the drink really?  And third, can you fully devote yourself to your duty, which often requires two hands.
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I understand having a comfortable (appropriate) beverage parked on your desk, but I don't think you should be so casual in the more "public" areas of the school.  It seems to send the wrong signal to parents and students. Sometimes we are too casual and don't consider the way things look to others.

It just something to consider.

Today marks 30 years since the bombing of the Alfred Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.  While three decades may have passed, my proximity to the event remains at at just under five miles.  I try not to forget the events of that day when I was the lead teacher in an elementary school with no principal in the building.  

When we finally knew what was happening in the downtown area, we did what we needed to do.  Thankfully, we had some miles separating us from the action, so we were just close enough to hear it and feel the concussion of the explosion.  Technology allowed us to have only one television in the school - on a rolling cart and kept in the library.  

We locked the building down - not letting anyone out for recess.  Some parents made their way to the front door, where I let them in to hug their children or take them home.

Teachers were nervous, and I did my best to comfort them.  We didn't know much about what happened. Throughout the day, there was more from the news, and I finished that school year as a stronger man, a more compassionate teacher, and a more methodical thinker.  While teaching in Joplin, Missouri, starting the next year, I told my story every year to fourth graders.  If you're interested in hearing it for yourself, I put together a 12-part presentation during COVID lockdowns:

When I was in middle school, junior high, and high school, my teachers wanted me to remember dates.  Historical dates.  International history.  State history.  Dates, dates, dates.  These were mostly dates that held no context, and they certainly didn't seem to have any relevance for me personally.  They were the kindling for tests, and they burned into smoke when the test was over.  Gone and forgotten.  It is probably easier for us to remember eras, approximations, and proximities than specific days, months, and years.

Dates of historical significance are often like that.  Memorizing them for a test means nothing to us.  But there are dates that live in our memories because of how they occurred during our lifetimes, because of the personal impacts we felt or shared.

It happened 25 years ago, in Oklahoma City, a month before I moved to Joplin, Missouri.  I shall never forget.

We remember dates.  We remember events.  All of us have moments when we remember where we are when a certain thing happened.  For me, those events go something like this:
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• July 20, 1969:  I know I was watching television in my living room.  The image was blurry and in black-and-white. Walter Cronkite narrated as man stepped onto the moon for the first time.  My fourth birthday was still a month away.

 

• August 16, 1977:  I was in the back seat of the family car, just 9 days from my 12th birthday.  We approached a traffic light near the DeVille shopping center in Oklahoma City when a person announced on the CB radio that Elvis Presley was dead.

 

• March 30, 1981:  It was my sophomore of high school in Tuttle, Oklahoma.  I was in Mr. Dan Kennedy's writing class at the end of the hall  when the news came over the radio that President Ronald Reagan had been shot.

 

• January 28, 1986:  I was student-teaching in a speech classroom at Yukon (Oklahoma) High School.  One of the girls returned from using the restroom to inform the class that the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after taking off.  My dad was laid off of his job on the same day.

 

• September 11, 2001:  I dropped off my fourth graders at Music and passed through the office at Cecil Floyd Elementary in Joplin.  A parent came to the counter to ask the secretaries if we had seen the news of planes hitting the Trade Center Towers in New York City.  My wife lost her job on the same day.

This list really highlights the news of the day.  These events are all ones that I could read about, listen to, and watch through media outlets.  But the real events that are closer to me are the ones I could walk outside my door to see.  Obviously, one of those events occurred on May 22, 2011, when we walked out the door and saw the devastation an EF5 tornado that destroyed much of Joplin and took the lives of our friends and neighbors.  

The first of our huge, dated, walk-out-the-door, personal experiences for me (outside of marriage and baby births) happened 25 years ago today:  April 19, 1995.  At 9:02 a.m., as I was giving a spelling test to my class of second graders some five miles away, domestic terrorist Timothy McVeigh's truck bomb exploded in downtown Oklahoma City.  I heard the boom.  I felt the shockwave.  None of us knew what it was.

As the lead teacher at Buchanan Elementary, I was responsible for the safety of students and staff.  Shortly after the blast, I delegated a parent to watch my students as I locked the school doors and counseled the staff.  With only one television (located in the library), information was sketchy.  I stood at the front door and let parents in when they wanted to hug their children or check them out of school for the rest of the day.

One of my students, SAMANTHA, attended a few of the memorials in the coming weeks as we ended our school year, and our class dealt with the subject honestly and openly in the remaining days.  Oklahoma City was rocked to the core.  But just as Joplin experienced following the 2011 tornado, people stepped up.  One evil act triggered countless good deeds and innumerable prayers.

​The church of Christ in Carthage, Missouri, is conducting an adult class about church history.  We're calling it FIRST2000, because this class is about the first two millennia after the death of Christ.  This post is intended to be a supplement to the class and the handouts.  Below, you will find mostly visual aids and video links.  Feel free to look in on our live class at the church building.

It is important to note that councils such as these and religious conferences or gatherings today do not determine the direction for either the individual Christian or the church.  Our guidance comes only through the Holy Spirits guidance upon the men who wrote the chapters and verses in our Bible.

These Middle Ages are the time when the state became involved in religious practices.  The central figure in the icon (below, left) is royalty - Constantine (with a condemned Arius in the bottom of the icon).  Before these councils, the church was not Catholic or Protestant.  As much as the church may have strayed from truth by this time, it is not until now that lines begin to be drawn, and this is the beginning of the need for some to call for reformation (more than a millennia into the future).  This is where the spark is ignited for future denominations to be established in the name of religious liberties and personal preferences. 

Much of the artwork portraying the Council of Nicaea is made during the Medieval Period and displays the men looking very Roman Catholic, with large hats and ornate clothing in a fancy setting, the Ninth Century image here (below, middle) is more accurate (Click on each to enlarge.).

We peer in on three of the seven "ecumenical councils" of the Middle Ages:

I didn’t want to go, but it was expected of me.  I had been fighting a two-day headache.  I had seasonal congestion.  I hadn’t slept well for the past three nights.  My job was leaving me exhausted and frustrated.  My energy was gone.  But I was expected to go anyway.

I didn’t want to go, but I had to go.  My reputation was at stake.   People would notice if I wasn’t there.  The elders would check on me if I missed three in a row.

I didn’t want to go, but I had to go…or did I?  Only a third of the congregation would be there anyway.  Obviously, it’s not important for everyone else.

You know what?  In spite of my aching head…

In spite of my seasonal congestion…

In spite of my lack of sleep…

In spite of the exhaustion from working a difficult shift…

In spite of a huge lack of energy…

And in spite of others’ lack of interest…

I went.

I listened to the lesson.

I even participated in the discussion.

Amazingly, when we were done, my headache was gone.  I hadn’t thought about it for the hour.  My energy level increased.  It wasn’t a miracle.  It wasn’t magic.  But my relief came just by immersing myself in the Word…and meditating…considering the Scripture, discussing it with others.

To think, I had dragged myself to the car, driven to the building while struggling to breathe, my head pounding in my ears.

To think, I had forced myself – for all the wrong reasons – to attend on a day in the middle of the week.

I had wanted to impress the diehard brethren.

I had wanted to tick the attendance box.

I had wanted credit for my sacrifice.

But something had happened.

I lost myself in the hour, and my headache left.

I was happier and more informed.

Exhaustion transformed to satisfaction.

Don’t do it for the wrong reason.

Just do it.

Do it in spite of…

You’ll be glad that you did.

Anyone who pays attention for long knows that I like to make a list of accomplishments when I return from a trip away from home.  This is my second trip to the Lexington, Kentucky, area, and on this excursion, I spent most of my time in nearby Frankfort and Midway.  And here is the list (shorter than usual since I spent only one night there, and I may have included some entries just to give it some length):
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• Left home before 5am
• Drove to Springfield, Missouri
• Ate a breakfast quiche at airport, not knowing it would be the best meal on this particular journey
• Sat behind loud, talkative people (who just met) on flight
• Landed in windy Chicago, wings waggling left and right (I just hoped to land parallel to the runway)
• Arrived ahead of schedule at Blue Grass National Airport
• Collected my rental car - 2025 Nissan Sentra with Maryland plates
• Drove through horse and bourbon country
• Ate a Bacon Steakhouse Whopper and  Hershey Chocolate Shake from the king of burgers
• Spent time with Dan’l and Rebecca Boone
• Photographed Confederate graves
• Located graves of Revolutionary soldiers and wives
• Found John Gano’s grave (man who claimed to have quietly baptized George Washington at Valley Forge)
• Learned more about the Restoration Movement
• Checked into a newly-built hotel, fourth floor
• Shook hands with John Fea, author and scholar from Messiah University
• Learned about Revolutionary period
• Heard the quote, “The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there”(John Fea).
• Ate a sandwich and cookie from Panera Bread
• Conducted two hours of professional development for 20 Kentucky educators
• Read Longfellow’s Midnight Ride of Paul Revere
• Analyzed Paul Revere’s description of his ride
• Saw three living horses (two more than last time)
• Realized I left a short charging cord in the hotel
• Changed shirt in airport restroom
• Checked the weather for Springfield Airport
• Flew with no neighbor
• Tried to understand Flight Attendant Julia who talked fast and loud
• Ate a burger, fries, and cheesecake at Blackhawk's in the airport
• Out of respect for the presenter, watched all airplane safety instructions each time (the only one who did)
• Turned down incentive to spend the night and take a flight tomorrow instead (They put extra fuel in the plane and paid four people to postpone their flight, since we might have had to divert to KC if weather in Springfield was bad as predicted)
• Listened to the gate announcer's thick Japanese accent
• Thought of Crocodile Dundee when the pilot made announcements
• Sat in the front row, with no one beside me
• Tried to figure out what Flight Attendant Ashley was shuffling around in preparation for snacks and beverages and to stow the same
• Landed without problem or storm in Springfield
• Paid to get my vehicle out of the parking lot
• Drove through rain, wind, and lots and lots of lightning to get home (One flash filled the cab of the truck with light and a huge boom)
• Preached a sermon about the devil the next morning
  

To my dearest wife,

I take leave of the blue grass of Kentucky, this afternoon, driving my steed through the long wooden fences demarking lands belonging to the finest of gentlemen.  I placed my eyes on three of their prettiest horses off the left flank of my own.  Soon I will arrive at the port of my departure.  I will there leave my four-hooved transportation and board the coach toward Chicago.  I only hope the winds have dissipated there since the time I was last there. 

Yearning with every fiber of my being,
​Your Loving Husband

P.S., The grass isn't really blue, but I can report that it is the greenest I have ever encountered.

The stage driver asked four people to postpone their journey, offering them credit, meals, and a place to stay overnight if they would.  He told everyone that a storm lay in front of us and that he could not guarantee our safe passage.  In the event that we would be detoured to another destination, they were loading extra feed for the horses, and he didn't want them to exert themselves with the extra weight.  To make up for the difference, one family stepped forward to accept his offer.

That still meant there was a danger for the rest of us.  I prayed the storm would hold off for long enough for us to arrive in Springfield.  When we did arrive, from there, I reacquired the horse from the stall I left it in at the livery.  I paid the attendant and with the gate being opened, I hastily rode toward you at home in the Junction of Carl.

The predicted storm was upon us, the horse dodging lightning on all sides.  One bolt struck so near that it filled my vision with nothing but hot white light.  I nearly jumped from the saddle but the horse would not be deterred.  She insisted on carrying me to the safety of your warm embrace.

I shall be home soon, my precious darling.  Light a lantern on the front porch to welcome me.

Forever yours,
Edward

I checked out of the hotel the next morning and headed back towards Midway, Kentucky (which as it happens, is about halfway between Lexington and Frankfort.  Midway is actually a still-operating township that was founded due to the railroad that was being build through there a long time ago. 

As this route took me through town, coming a different direction than I took last time, I was able to spot a couple of historical markers.  Having some extra time and being so close to the university where we make our presentations, I diverted for a moment to read them.  I was happily pleased to see that they make connections with the Restoration Movement of the church.  One labeled the location as an early African-American congregation of the Disciples of Christ and made the claim that Alexander Campbell was its first "pastor" (even while he remained enslaved prior to the Civil War).  There was another man who shared the same name as Alexander, but the other man was one of the leaders who was pivotal in bringing restoration to the church of Christ.

Across the street and a few feet down the road was another marker, this one standing in front of the university. While the university's history claims that it was a school for orphan girls, this marker states that the Second Christian Church building here was also a school for formerly enslaved men.  It's not too difficult to envision a 30x50 log building here instead of the current buildings.

I had hoped to visit the library for a glance at the melodeon that split the church that became the Disciples of Christ and the Church of Christ.  One of the buildings - Pinkerton Hall - gets its name from the man who introduced the instrument to the formerly acapella worship.  Others kicked it out, refusing to accept that man has the choice to do something in worship that is not taught at all in the New Testament.  Through a later purchase, the melodeon was acquired and is not displayed in the library.

I went across campus to see it with an employee, but the doors were locked.  She promised she would arrange a visit when I return in May.

I am privileged to have been asked to be a master teacher with the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.  It is an honor to get to follow scholarly presentations (this time with Dr. John Fea from Messiah University in Pennsylvania) with my own workshop of how to teach the content (pedagogy).  My topic for the afternoon sessions was Paul Revere's Ride.

Just another note:  the Book of Mormon was in the nightstand instead of the Bible.  I thought that odd, and it made me wonder if the Latter Day Saints enjoy a prominent presence in this area.

As in the last post about this cemetery, I include some more photos below.  Look closely:  you may spot a Kentucky governor in there, as well as a senator.  I am particularly drawn to Revolutionary War soldiers and their wives, and monuments that have been erected to honor them.

While searching for these two gravesites, I took pictures of some other photogenic  stones and monuments.