My seven-week break finally came to an end this thursday.... so it's back to work at CMPB. Felt like I'm dragging my feet there that morning.... I was so sleepy after getting used to sleeping until 9 everyday.
It had been a good week, but a hectic one as usual. On my return, I was greeted with lotsa welcome and warming smiles from my colleagues, and of course, much scrutiny on my left eye.
So it's 4 more weeks and counting... to ORD!
Anointed = 'Always right'?
Found this article from Yahoo...
`Superstar' pastors pose challenge
By RACHEL ZOLL, AP Religion Writer
Pastor Ted's influence was felt everywhere in New Life Church: in the videos shown at worship; in the New Life bookstore, which stocked books he recommended; and in the story of the church itself. He started New Life in his basement, building it into a 14,000-member nationally known megachurch. As the Rev. Ted Haggard's fortunes rose, so did the church's.
So when Haggard fell spectacularly from grace in a scandal involving drugs and allegations of gay sex, many wondered if New Life, so tied to his public persona, would crash with him.
The answer has significance far beyond the Haggard tragedy. As evangelical megachurches have sprung up around the country, concerns have grown over whether superstar pastors help or hurt faith communities.
"When you get to these top 25 or 50 of the largest or most influential churches, these pastors are clearly celebrities. They were the founders, they created much of the growth and they are, in some sense, a brand in and of themselves," said Scott Thumma, a professor at Hartford Seminary in Connecticut, who specializes in studying megachurches. "It's just like a business where the name of the founder is, in fact, a trademark."
America has always had big-name preachers — from Billy Sunday, the pro baseball player-turned-evangelist, to Billy Graham. But the two were not closely tied to a single church. Among today's best-known pastors, Rick Warren has Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., Joel Osteen has Lakewood Church in Houston and Bishop T.D. Jakes has The Potter's House in Dallas.
Graham and Sunday also worked in a vastly different media environment. Modern-day celebrity pastors have Web sites, where they promote their books, along with the DVDs, TV shows and films they produce, while preaching internationally. With such high profiles, word of any wrongdoing will spread quickly, intensifying the damage to them and their congregations.
Haggard felt the impact firsthand last week. On Nov. 2, Mike Jones of Denver came forward saying he had drug-fueled homosexual trysts regularly with Haggard over the last few years.
The claims spread through the Internet, where they were placed side-by-side with video and past news articles in which Haggard had condemned gay marriage and had presented his family life, with wife Gayle and their five children, as a model.
Haggard, 50, immediately resigned as president of the National Association of Evangelicals, an umbrella group for about 45,000 conservative churches, and within days was fired by New Life in Colorado Springs, Colo. In a letter read Sunday at New Life services, he did not address the specifics of Jones' claims, but confessed he was guilty of "sexual immorality."
New Life's reaction was swift — yet most megachurches don't have such effective oversight. Many have boards stacked with relatives, friends, personal lawyers and hangers-on who wouldn't dare contradict the pastor, said Bill Martin, a Rice University expert on evangelicals.
Nearly all megachurches are independent from a denomination — an asset for their flexibility, but a liability when it comes to checks on power. By contrast, mainline Protestant denominations vet clergy credentials and have elaborate systems of church tribunals, similar to civil courts, that discipline errant ministers.
"The pitfall with the megachurches, the personality driven churches, is it's so easy for a person to consider him- or herself above accountability," Martin said. "If that accountability is absent or reduced, then trouble is on the way."
Some megachurch pastors are aware of the risk. They allow independent audits of their finances and have elaborate rules meant to minimize any chance of sex scandal. For example, some only allow male staff members to counsel women if someone else is in the room or if the door is open. And in a highly unusual practice for pastors, Warren, who has sold millions of copies of his book "The Purpose Driven Life," gives 90 percent of his income to the church.
"Money is a difficult issue with megachurch pastors," Thumma said. "They're accused all the time of fleecing their flocks and using that money to buy fancy cars and homes when their members have less."
With Haggard gone and the crisis he created easing, New Life members face a different challenge: They must decide whether they wish to belong to a church without the charismatic leader.
Nancy Ammerman, a Boston University sociologist who researches congregational life, said the megachurch might be saved by its extensive programs that create social groups within the church. New Life uses the small group model, where churchgoers meet regularly with just a few others, sometimes based on common interests outside of worship.
"That also gives them a forum within which to deal with what happened," Ammerman said.
But Randall Balmer, a Barnard College historian of American religion, said megachurches are so wrapped up with their pastor that New Life inevitably has hard times ahead. Without any creed or denominational identity for the church to cling to, attendance will eventually drop by half or more, he predicted.
"You have a kind of cult of personality that confuses the faith with a particular individual," said Balmer, author of "Thy Kingdom Come: How the Religious Right Distorts the Faith and Threatens America." "I just think it's very difficult to recover from this sort of thing."
.... My point of view: I guess we can't really say that the religlious leaders we respect today will stand by what they preach tomorrow. Humans are fallible creatures aren't we? So who or what do we look to when we question the reason for our existence? - Scriptures that are penned in the hands of man? Or the claims of divine encounters from the tongues of man?
But so long as life goes on, the search for indivivual enlightenment and fulfilment continues...
`Superstar' pastors pose challenge
By RACHEL ZOLL, AP Religion Writer
Pastor Ted's influence was felt everywhere in New Life Church: in the videos shown at worship; in the New Life bookstore, which stocked books he recommended; and in the story of the church itself. He started New Life in his basement, building it into a 14,000-member nationally known megachurch. As the Rev. Ted Haggard's fortunes rose, so did the church's.
So when Haggard fell spectacularly from grace in a scandal involving drugs and allegations of gay sex, many wondered if New Life, so tied to his public persona, would crash with him.
The answer has significance far beyond the Haggard tragedy. As evangelical megachurches have sprung up around the country, concerns have grown over whether superstar pastors help or hurt faith communities.
"When you get to these top 25 or 50 of the largest or most influential churches, these pastors are clearly celebrities. They were the founders, they created much of the growth and they are, in some sense, a brand in and of themselves," said Scott Thumma, a professor at Hartford Seminary in Connecticut, who specializes in studying megachurches. "It's just like a business where the name of the founder is, in fact, a trademark."
America has always had big-name preachers — from Billy Sunday, the pro baseball player-turned-evangelist, to Billy Graham. But the two were not closely tied to a single church. Among today's best-known pastors, Rick Warren has Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., Joel Osteen has Lakewood Church in Houston and Bishop T.D. Jakes has The Potter's House in Dallas.
Graham and Sunday also worked in a vastly different media environment. Modern-day celebrity pastors have Web sites, where they promote their books, along with the DVDs, TV shows and films they produce, while preaching internationally. With such high profiles, word of any wrongdoing will spread quickly, intensifying the damage to them and their congregations.
Haggard felt the impact firsthand last week. On Nov. 2, Mike Jones of Denver came forward saying he had drug-fueled homosexual trysts regularly with Haggard over the last few years.
The claims spread through the Internet, where they were placed side-by-side with video and past news articles in which Haggard had condemned gay marriage and had presented his family life, with wife Gayle and their five children, as a model.
Haggard, 50, immediately resigned as president of the National Association of Evangelicals, an umbrella group for about 45,000 conservative churches, and within days was fired by New Life in Colorado Springs, Colo. In a letter read Sunday at New Life services, he did not address the specifics of Jones' claims, but confessed he was guilty of "sexual immorality."
New Life's reaction was swift — yet most megachurches don't have such effective oversight. Many have boards stacked with relatives, friends, personal lawyers and hangers-on who wouldn't dare contradict the pastor, said Bill Martin, a Rice University expert on evangelicals.
Nearly all megachurches are independent from a denomination — an asset for their flexibility, but a liability when it comes to checks on power. By contrast, mainline Protestant denominations vet clergy credentials and have elaborate systems of church tribunals, similar to civil courts, that discipline errant ministers.
"The pitfall with the megachurches, the personality driven churches, is it's so easy for a person to consider him- or herself above accountability," Martin said. "If that accountability is absent or reduced, then trouble is on the way."
Some megachurch pastors are aware of the risk. They allow independent audits of their finances and have elaborate rules meant to minimize any chance of sex scandal. For example, some only allow male staff members to counsel women if someone else is in the room or if the door is open. And in a highly unusual practice for pastors, Warren, who has sold millions of copies of his book "The Purpose Driven Life," gives 90 percent of his income to the church.
"Money is a difficult issue with megachurch pastors," Thumma said. "They're accused all the time of fleecing their flocks and using that money to buy fancy cars and homes when their members have less."
With Haggard gone and the crisis he created easing, New Life members face a different challenge: They must decide whether they wish to belong to a church without the charismatic leader.
Nancy Ammerman, a Boston University sociologist who researches congregational life, said the megachurch might be saved by its extensive programs that create social groups within the church. New Life uses the small group model, where churchgoers meet regularly with just a few others, sometimes based on common interests outside of worship.
"That also gives them a forum within which to deal with what happened," Ammerman said.
But Randall Balmer, a Barnard College historian of American religion, said megachurches are so wrapped up with their pastor that New Life inevitably has hard times ahead. Without any creed or denominational identity for the church to cling to, attendance will eventually drop by half or more, he predicted.
"You have a kind of cult of personality that confuses the faith with a particular individual," said Balmer, author of "Thy Kingdom Come: How the Religious Right Distorts the Faith and Threatens America." "I just think it's very difficult to recover from this sort of thing."
.... My point of view: I guess we can't really say that the religlious leaders we respect today will stand by what they preach tomorrow. Humans are fallible creatures aren't we? So who or what do we look to when we question the reason for our existence? - Scriptures that are penned in the hands of man? Or the claims of divine encounters from the tongues of man?
But so long as life goes on, the search for indivivual enlightenment and fulfilment continues...
Perseverence
This is for all who need a little push, and all taking their Os and As....
The Story of 2 Frogs
Two young frogs fell into a bucket of milk. Both tried to jump to freedom, but the sides of the bucket were steep and no foundation was to be had on the surface of the liquid.
Seeing little chance of escape, the first frog soon despaired and stopped jumping. After a short while he sunk to the bottom of the bucket and drowned.
The second frog also saw no likelihood of success, but he never stopped trying. Even though each jump seemed to reach the same inadequate height, he kept on struggling. Eventually, his persistent efforts churned some milk into butter. From the now hardened surface of the milk, he managed to leap out of the bucket.
The moral of this little inspiring story: Those who don't give up and persevere may be in for a pleasant surprise!
The Story of 2 Frogs
Two young frogs fell into a bucket of milk. Both tried to jump to freedom, but the sides of the bucket were steep and no foundation was to be had on the surface of the liquid.
Seeing little chance of escape, the first frog soon despaired and stopped jumping. After a short while he sunk to the bottom of the bucket and drowned.
The second frog also saw no likelihood of success, but he never stopped trying. Even though each jump seemed to reach the same inadequate height, he kept on struggling. Eventually, his persistent efforts churned some milk into butter. From the now hardened surface of the milk, he managed to leap out of the bucket.
The moral of this little inspiring story: Those who don't give up and persevere may be in for a pleasant surprise!
"National Slavery"?
Hi ppl... I know, it's been a while since I last posted something. Must have been four weeks? OK, I'll try to be more prolific, I promise.
Alright, you might wonder what's with the title... Well, I was on a bus ride home after a photo shoot at CMPB today. (No, I am not modelling haha... perhaps maybe until I achieve something admirable in my gym routine?) The photo session was to commemorate the service of those who gave up 2 precious years to serve the nation...(for my case, I literally 'served' in the service line).
For many, 2 years is indeed a heavy price to pay to keep our pink IC - my sentiments too. A friend even coined the term "National Slavery" for NS. I think I consider myself more fortunate then some. My vocation as a medic has exposed me a wealth of knowledge that I wouldn't have otherwise. In the little radiological department housed in CMPB, I got to learn the invaluable skills of taking X-rays and reading them; I've befriend many from varied backgrounds and visited their world so alien to my own; It's like a first-hand experience of what a future workplace is like - with all its disgreements, politics, teamwork.
Hey, so you might ask - "What about being a man?" So medics aren't 'man' enough? Hmm, I do agree that the definition of manhood and masculinity doesn't seem complete with adrogenic qualities such bulging muscles, superhuman endurance. But that's just the physical aspect. Well, sitting in an office from eight-five isn't gonna build the 6-packs... you might realised that the combination of the 6 to form a bulge after a while. OK, my point is, it's the holistic development of one's character that counts. Qualities such honesty, leadership, team-spirit, responsibilty, patriotism and discipline can also be nurtured in a setting outside a battle training field.
For me, my NS experience didn't really stop at CMPB. I spent time going out with my colleagues, gave tuitions, went to the gym faithfully. I guess how you make use for personal development during the 2-year term decides how 'man' you can be.
Alright, you might wonder what's with the title... Well, I was on a bus ride home after a photo shoot at CMPB today. (No, I am not modelling haha... perhaps maybe until I achieve something admirable in my gym routine?) The photo session was to commemorate the service of those who gave up 2 precious years to serve the nation...(for my case, I literally 'served' in the service line).
For many, 2 years is indeed a heavy price to pay to keep our pink IC - my sentiments too. A friend even coined the term "National Slavery" for NS. I think I consider myself more fortunate then some. My vocation as a medic has exposed me a wealth of knowledge that I wouldn't have otherwise. In the little radiological department housed in CMPB, I got to learn the invaluable skills of taking X-rays and reading them; I've befriend many from varied backgrounds and visited their world so alien to my own; It's like a first-hand experience of what a future workplace is like - with all its disgreements, politics, teamwork.
Hey, so you might ask - "What about being a man?" So medics aren't 'man' enough? Hmm, I do agree that the definition of manhood and masculinity doesn't seem complete with adrogenic qualities such bulging muscles, superhuman endurance. But that's just the physical aspect. Well, sitting in an office from eight-five isn't gonna build the 6-packs... you might realised that the combination of the 6 to form a bulge after a while. OK, my point is, it's the holistic development of one's character that counts. Qualities such honesty, leadership, team-spirit, responsibilty, patriotism and discipline can also be nurtured in a setting outside a battle training field.
For me, my NS experience didn't really stop at CMPB. I spent time going out with my colleagues, gave tuitions, went to the gym faithfully. I guess how you make use for personal development during the 2-year term decides how 'man' you can be.
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