Leaving Home and Celebrating 84 Years
Following up on my previous post.
I exchanged a couple more emails with Bill Bohline (lead pastor at Hosanna) about Hosanna's stance toward same-sex marriage. The tone in each of his replies became progressively dismissive. Realizing that emails were a poor vehicle for voicing my concerns I emailed him asking if I could have 30 minutes of his time to discuss the matter. What I wanted was to sit down with him and together watch Greg Boyd's video.
My email to him:
Pastor Bill,
I would like 30 minutes of your time, please. I'm available Tuesday after 2:00 or anytime Friday.
Thank you,
Kevin Gilmore
His response to me:
Kevin, you have had more than 30 minutes of my time in this last week.
And that was that. Not even a "sincerely, Pastor Bill" ...just his curt response.
I was left with the overriding feeling that he has little time for anybody who dares to challenge him. I sensed absolutely none of Christ's love in his words in either his last email or those before it—just lip service in that regard. This was very disappointing to me.
One thing I never really touched on in all of this talk about Hosanna's embracing of the Marriage Amendment is that this really isn't Hosanna's place to stick their nose. Church doctrine shouldn't be influencing our public positions. I can only imagine the outcry we'd hear if Muslims, Hindus or Buddhists suddenly wanted their beliefs written into our constitution.
That's how I see it.
With that, my more than 15 years at Hosanna come to a close. I never envisioned this playing out as it did, but now that it has, I really can't see myself going back there. I've been drifting further and further from feeling that I belong there for some time. So much for my dreams of being the main go-to guy for keeping the grounds mowed in my retirement, but that's okay because maybe there's a more important calling for me.
I took Tuesday off from work to meet with a doctor near St Cloud to discuss stem-cell treatment for my knees. Before he can make any recommendation about the procedure and what benefits I might expect, my doctor wants me to work hard on getting my hamstrings loosened. Tight hamstrings are a very common problem for cyclists, and until I get mine back to something more normal, there's really no point in considering any other fix for the pain in my knees. My tight hamstrings will only reverse whatever improvements the stem-cell therapy provides because, as the doctor explained to me, the patella of both knees is having a difficult time tracking correctly so long as I've got a combination of strong quadriceps with weak/tight hamstrings. He said it's entirely possible that much of my knee pain will go away once I achieve the flexibility I need throughout my legs. I'm meeting with a therapist on Wednesday morning who specializes in cycling-related injuries.
We had such a nice time in the studio at Foci last Thursday. The furnace serving our bench was late getting turned on, so while it was getting up to temperature, we had some time to hang out and watch some of the other artists. We chatted with Peter Zelle and watched him work his magic with some tumblers. He has a different style than we're used to seeing, so it was nice to watch and learn. Like many of the artists there, he was so helpful in answering our questions. After getting a quick demo from Liz, Tammy spent most of her time working on Christmas ornaments. She's another favorite artist of ours at Foci.
I drove by Mom's last Friday afternoon to drop off some flowers and wine, but she wasn't home. She turned 84 yesterday. On the way back home, I stopped at KwikTrip to gas up my truck and found her there filling her Escort. She really is the Energizer Bunny. Tammy and I were able to make it over to her house last night and spend a couple hours with her. It was a nice time and we had her laughing, ribbing her about her love of Fox News. Rachel called while we were there to wish her a happy birthday, so in a sense, we were all there with her.
It looks like our warm temps are done for the year. In my previous life when I was a runner, I'd run outdoors no matter how cold it got without any concerns for staying warm enough. It seemed I was always more worried about overheating on a run than anything. My walks will be a different animal entirely, considering my heart rate never gets elevated enough to generate the warmth I'll need to remain out there for very long when the real cold stuff arrives. But by that time I hope to be answering the call of my Mukluk. I can't wait!
I enjoyed a nice walk late Friday afternoon in western Lakeville on my Murphy Hanrehan loop. There wasn't much of a breeze, and with a temperature in the mid-to-upper 30s, it made for nice conditions to be out there. The new battery in my Droid Bionic showed little signs of wear during the 3 hours I spent walking, putting it through its paces, and listening to podcasts the entire time.
I'm officially declaring the War on Leaves, 2012, to be over. Now you see them, now you don't!
Craig Natvig pulled the plug last Wednesday and retired after 30+ years in the trenches as a controller. Always easygoing and as competent as anybody to ever don a headset. He went out in style wearing a sports coat to work on Monday, a suit on Tuesday, and a Tux on Wednesday. I went out to his place for a retirement party last Friday night. It was a nice time and it gave me a chance to chat with some other recently retired controllers and get a feel from them for what retirement life is like. I'm actually trying not to think too much about it, but sometimes I just can't help it. 423 dtg!
Scenes from Friday's walk in and near Murphy Hanrehan Park Reserve...
I exchanged a couple more emails with Bill Bohline (lead pastor at Hosanna) about Hosanna's stance toward same-sex marriage. The tone in each of his replies became progressively dismissive. Realizing that emails were a poor vehicle for voicing my concerns I emailed him asking if I could have 30 minutes of his time to discuss the matter. What I wanted was to sit down with him and together watch Greg Boyd's video.
My email to him:
Pastor Bill,
I would like 30 minutes of your time, please. I'm available Tuesday after 2:00 or anytime Friday.
Thank you,
Kevin Gilmore
His response to me:
Kevin, you have had more than 30 minutes of my time in this last week.
And that was that. Not even a "sincerely, Pastor Bill" ...just his curt response.
I was left with the overriding feeling that he has little time for anybody who dares to challenge him. I sensed absolutely none of Christ's love in his words in either his last email or those before it—just lip service in that regard. This was very disappointing to me.
One thing I never really touched on in all of this talk about Hosanna's embracing of the Marriage Amendment is that this really isn't Hosanna's place to stick their nose. Church doctrine shouldn't be influencing our public positions. I can only imagine the outcry we'd hear if Muslims, Hindus or Buddhists suddenly wanted their beliefs written into our constitution.
That's how I see it.
With that, my more than 15 years at Hosanna come to a close. I never envisioned this playing out as it did, but now that it has, I really can't see myself going back there. I've been drifting further and further from feeling that I belong there for some time. So much for my dreams of being the main go-to guy for keeping the grounds mowed in my retirement, but that's okay because maybe there's a more important calling for me.
I took Tuesday off from work to meet with a doctor near St Cloud to discuss stem-cell treatment for my knees. Before he can make any recommendation about the procedure and what benefits I might expect, my doctor wants me to work hard on getting my hamstrings loosened. Tight hamstrings are a very common problem for cyclists, and until I get mine back to something more normal, there's really no point in considering any other fix for the pain in my knees. My tight hamstrings will only reverse whatever improvements the stem-cell therapy provides because, as the doctor explained to me, the patella of both knees is having a difficult time tracking correctly so long as I've got a combination of strong quadriceps with weak/tight hamstrings. He said it's entirely possible that much of my knee pain will go away once I achieve the flexibility I need throughout my legs. I'm meeting with a therapist on Wednesday morning who specializes in cycling-related injuries.
We had such a nice time in the studio at Foci last Thursday. The furnace serving our bench was late getting turned on, so while it was getting up to temperature, we had some time to hang out and watch some of the other artists. We chatted with Peter Zelle and watched him work his magic with some tumblers. He has a different style than we're used to seeing, so it was nice to watch and learn. Like many of the artists there, he was so helpful in answering our questions. After getting a quick demo from Liz, Tammy spent most of her time working on Christmas ornaments. She's another favorite artist of ours at Foci.
I drove by Mom's last Friday afternoon to drop off some flowers and wine, but she wasn't home. She turned 84 yesterday. On the way back home, I stopped at KwikTrip to gas up my truck and found her there filling her Escort. She really is the Energizer Bunny. Tammy and I were able to make it over to her house last night and spend a couple hours with her. It was a nice time and we had her laughing, ribbing her about her love of Fox News. Rachel called while we were there to wish her a happy birthday, so in a sense, we were all there with her.
It looks like our warm temps are done for the year. In my previous life when I was a runner, I'd run outdoors no matter how cold it got without any concerns for staying warm enough. It seemed I was always more worried about overheating on a run than anything. My walks will be a different animal entirely, considering my heart rate never gets elevated enough to generate the warmth I'll need to remain out there for very long when the real cold stuff arrives. But by that time I hope to be answering the call of my Mukluk. I can't wait!
I enjoyed a nice walk late Friday afternoon in western Lakeville on my Murphy Hanrehan loop. There wasn't much of a breeze, and with a temperature in the mid-to-upper 30s, it made for nice conditions to be out there. The new battery in my Droid Bionic showed little signs of wear during the 3 hours I spent walking, putting it through its paces, and listening to podcasts the entire time.
I'm officially declaring the War on Leaves, 2012, to be over. Now you see them, now you don't!Craig Natvig pulled the plug last Wednesday and retired after 30+ years in the trenches as a controller. Always easygoing and as competent as anybody to ever don a headset. He went out in style wearing a sports coat to work on Monday, a suit on Tuesday, and a Tux on Wednesday. I went out to his place for a retirement party last Friday night. It was a nice time and it gave me a chance to chat with some other recently retired controllers and get a feel from them for what retirement life is like. I'm actually trying not to think too much about it, but sometimes I just can't help it. 423 dtg!
Scenes from Friday's walk in and near Murphy Hanrehan Park Reserve...
Comments
Carry on, brother.
Annon...no, I intend to vote no on the amendment regardless of what any church says. The church really shouldn't have a say in this public matter. How can any church, faith, whatever impose its doctrine on the public? It's not right.
My problem with Bill Bohline is in the way that he too often will single out the GLBT community while giving a pass to the rest of us for our sins. We can be gluttons, we can be greedy and idolatrous of so many things in life but none of that will keep us from holding positions within the church. Being gay and being in a committed relationship though is a huge no-no according to Bill. Sins of homosexuality are weighted much more heavily than any of Bill's sins.
"We also recognize the need to be particularly vigilant in maintaining our witness to heterosexual marriage as God's design for human sexual expression."
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/86151476/Advancing-Gods-Kingdom-everywhere_-one-person-at-a-time
And he says Hosanna welcomes GLBT people? Yeah right.
Anyway, it doesn't matter what he thinks because I'm never setting foot in that church again. Nice way of "advancing God's kingdom" Hosanna.
Why do we need to be "particularly vigilant" only with respect to homosexuals? That's the part I just don't get. We all carry around with us a ton of baggage that we want to leave at the cross but gather up and take with us each time we try. But that's okay because as long as your special 'sin' isn't homosexual in nature you're free to serve the Lord in whatever capacity you desire.
Hypocrites!
Bill Bohline is a business man. Nothing more. I get no sense of the love of Christ from him. I get no sense of someone who is out to save souls. He's out to feather his nest before retirement while building his little empire.
I don't think he's someone who has much forgiveness or understanding in his heart for anybody who dares to challenge him.
Small-man syndrome can be such a hurdle to overcome. Clearly it is for him.