Mental Musings

There are many faces to spiritual abuse. It is not just something that happens among religious cults. Spiritual abuse takes place anytime a spiritual leader makes choices based on their own selfish desires. Most people will immediately about the reports of some child molesting priest, but spiritual abuse does not always involve such vivid criminal acts. Look at these different scenarios: Although my pastor receives a full-time salary from the church, he sees nothing wrong with spending his afternoons working with his brother's construction company. He claims that he is often called to the hospital in the middle of the night or that he spends many hours in church meetings and visitation so he should be allowed to spend office hours making a little extra money. [NOTE: some churches allow their ministers to do things like this because they cannot afford to pay the minister a suitable salary] We felt as though God wanted us to move to a neighboring church so that we could help them min...

What do I mean about awkward ? That place where you do not have enough people in an ensemble to create two groups, but you have more people than you really need for one group. When I first came to this church, the praise team was composed of the following: 2 sopranos, 2 second sopranos, 2 tenors, 2 altos, a lead singer, acoustic guitar, lead guitar, bass, drums, and a keyboard/piano. I immediately thought that we had too many singers, but they had a great sound together and do function as a separate singing ensemble for special events like our Living Christmas Tree. I wanted to split our singers into two groups, but have faced opposition from the singers who all want to stay together as one group. We also have other singers who are interested in joining the praise team, but I have postponed increasing the group until I decide how to divide into smaller units. I pushed to increase our band to include some wind players (we added a flute with sax and trumpet to follow soon). I moved the k...

I have been tagged by Wendy because she wants to torment me. The rules: Put a link to the person who tagged you. Mention the rules on your blog. Tell 6 quirky things about yourself. Tag 6 fellow bloggers by linking them. Leave each of them a comment letting them know they've been tagged. My list: Little, unknown noises bug me. I cannot sleep until I figure out what is causing the noise. Knowing that there are things out of their proper place bug me. Before I was married I had to make sure everything was in the proper place before going to sleep. I gave up after marriage and then kids. I hate repeating myself. Did you hear me? I hate, oh, never mind. When I get money as a gift I would rather spend it on other people than on myself. I can't remember people or things that happened in my past unless I am not trying to remember them. I can hear the distinct voices and conversations from dozens of people as I walk through the mall or any other public place. I can mentally focus...