Back Talk Lakewood/East Dallas

Faith on Tap searches for a new location

Heard from Rev. Brent Barry today, and the news of Bailey's First & 10 closing was a shock to the Faith on Tap crew when they got wind of it yesterday afternoon. He's calling around trying to find a new place, and welcomes suggestions from neighbors.

We'll keep you updated once the new spot is named.

Losing our religion: Faith on Tap

Rev. Brent Barry received an e-mail from a friend recently. In the midst of the message, the friend referred to Barry’s latest ministry, Faith on Tap, which takes place monthly at neighborhood bar Bailey’s First & 10. The friend said: “I would think you would want to be above reproach.”

Barry sighs. “It was one of those days,” he says, explaining that he couldn’t help retorting: “As soon as Jesus gets out of the bar, I’ll leave, too.”

Rev. Brent Barry received an e-mail from a friend recently. In the midst of the message, the friend referred to Barry’s latest ministry, Faith on Tap, which takes place monthly at neighborhood bar Bailey’s First & 10. The friend said: “I would think you would want to be above reproach.”

Barry sighs. “It was one of those days,” he says, explaining that he couldn’t help retorting: “As soon as Jesus gets out of the bar, I’ll leave, too.”

Rev. Brent Barry received an e-mail from a friend recently. In the midst of the message, the friend referred to Barry’s latest ministry, Faith on Tap, which takes place monthly at neighborhood bar Bailey’s First & 10. The friend said: “I would think you would want to be above reproach.”

Barry sighs. “It was one of those days,” he says, explaining that he couldn’t help retorting: “As soon as Jesus gets out of the bar, I’ll leave, too.”

Losing our religion: Books that pastors read

I interviewed more than 25 clergy for November's cover stories, and most of those interviews took place in their studies. As you can imagine, when talking about the present and future of churches with ministers who are surrounded by books, it's inevitable for some of those books to be discussed.

Here are just a few that were mentioned (and a couple generously loaned to me, which I plan to return as soon as I read them):

I interviewed more than 25 clergy for November's cover stories, and most of those interviews took place in their studies. As you can imagine, when talking about the present and future of churches with ministers who are surrounded by books, it's inevitable for some of those books to be discussed.

Here are just a few that were mentioned (and a couple generously loaned to me, which I plan to return as soon as I read them):

Losing our religion: Is liturgy the 'new' hip thing?

One interesting theme that kept popping up as I talked to pastors of mainline churches for November’s cover story was that they are seeing an increase of young worshippers returning to their liturgical services.

“Young people are coming in here looking for Sunday morning church that doesn’t look like Saturday night entertainment,” says Rev. Robert Preece of Zion Lutheran Church. “They look for me to be pastoral; they don’t look for me wearing a suit and carrying a mike and with a full orchestra behind me.”

I have my own theories about this, being a Gen X-er or Buster or whatever you want to call it. I found myself gravitating toward liturgy and “high church” during college, weary from the emotionalism and showiness of upbeat contemporary services. The only thing I could figure is that since my generation grew up in the postmodern era of relativism, we yearn for the historic, for traditions that have spanned centuries.

To paraphrase author Sarah Raymond of “Dear Church: Letters from a Disillusioned Generation”, 20- and 30-somethings grew up watching MTV. They know it’s fake. They don’t want houses of worship resembling the entertainment world because if they’re going to spend our time in church, they want to know that it’s authentic.

In the story, I often quoted Robin Lovin, Southern Methodist University ethics professor and former dean of Perkins School of Theology. His words conveyed a similar explanation: “Certainly it’s true that I think people are looking for an experience in worship that doesn’t just duplicate what they get when they turn on the television, so we may be going through a cycle where more traditional styles of worship are becoming prominent.”

But Lovin also explains that the trend, once again, has something to do with life cycles: “You had a generation that clearly didn’t want to go to their father’s church, but they now have children of their own, and as happens in this kind of cycle, all of a sudden the old ways of worship are new again for a young adult who has not experienced this form of liturgy.”

Losing our religion: The blog conversation

If it hasn't already, the November edition of the Advocate should arrive at your front door sometime soon. Some of you have already noticed and read the cover story on neighborhood places of worship. I know this because the letters already have begun coming in, conveying everything from why we shouldn't have done the story in the first place to reasons for attendance decline that we didn't explore.

We welcome your letters, and encourage you to write us with any feedback (send them to [email protected]). I may even discuss some of your thoughts on the Back Talk blog over the next couple of weeks. Also on the blog in coming days, I'll be sharing bits and pieces from the interviews that didn't quite fit into the story. If you're so inclined, I hope you'll join the conversation with your comments.

Day of the Dead show opens this weekend

Night is falling earlier, the air is cooling and Halloweeny-season is nigh, and it is that time of year for the Day of the Dead exhibit at the Bath House Cultural Center. The exhibit opens this Sunday with a reception from 5-7 p.m., and it will run through Nov. 8. Every year, the Day of the Dead Exhibit at the Bath House seems to get better. The gallery walls are increasingly colorful and rich with skeletons and specters, sometimes smiling or dancing and sometimes just spooky. It’s a celebration of the dead and death and what happens afterward — a tough concept for me to grasp, honestly, as I tend to be very saddened by death (weird, I know). But that’s what I love about Day of the Dead and the festivities surrounding it — it challenges what we think we know about the unknown.

Lots of local artists participating in this show, see the list here.

Citizen journalists we appreciate (need) you

... and so does the community. 

Over the weekend Keri Mitchell and I attended a Blog/New Media Expo in Las Vegas. I am sure we will sporadically share our newfound wisdom with you over future days and weeks, but for now I’d like to touch on one important thing I derived from the experience:

I learned that in order to have an outstanding neighborhood blog, you have to have outstanding folks out in the neighborhood writing regular, interesting, super-local posts. Advocate has a stellar editorial staff, if I do say so myself.  But we are but a very few people putting out five neighborhood magazines every month, plus the occasional special addition. While we want to be all over the place covering news for Back Talk, we can’t be more than one place at a time — or should I say we haven’t figured out how to yet. 

That brings me back to my aforementioned assessment — we need the citizen journalists, such as Back Talk contributor Norman Alston, who help us keep our finger on the pulse of Lakewood and do a great job of writing about it.

BINGO and carnival this weekend at St. Bernard

I just love St. Bernard School in the Little Forest Hills area near White Rock — now I must disclose I have personal ties. My daughter goes to school there, my mom has taught there for more years than I can count, and the late wonderful Father Gus of St. Bernard Church married my husband and me. So, sure, I’m bias. But that doesn’t change the fact that the folks at St. Bernard know how to throw a party, and that’s why the carnival this Friday and Saturday Sept. 18 and 19 is a DO NOT MISS event. Especially fun for you gamblers out there — Friday night B I N G O — take it from someone who knows. And the food they serve up is tops. Get info here. See you there.

Turn in your old clothes for new (to you) ones

Every time I open my closet I think, “man, there’s a lot of stuff crammed in here,” and then, almost immediately, “I have nothing to wear.” Nothing to wear usually means I’m tired of the same old stuff.

Now, finally, a solution: The Munger Place United Methodist Church Clothing Exchange.

Here’s how it works: Bring a bag of clean, gently used clothing for adults, teens, children or babies to the church, 5200 Bryan Street. Take home a same size bag of "new to you" clothing. Or purchase a bag to fill for $5.

A minister at Obama's former church crosses a line again, but is it a line that matters to anyone?

At the risk of wandering blindly into two highly charged areas, I have to ask this question: Why is a Barack Obama's now-former congregation laughing and cheering about Hillary Clinton being a cry-baby during a Sunday worship service?

In this lull day as Obama takes the Democratic nomination but before the full-scale war of words begins for the fall campaign, it's as good a time as any to think about the involvement of church in state. You're probably heard the latest flap concerning Trinity United Church of Christ, which caused Obama to resign his membership: A visiting Catholic priest went off on Hillary during his Sunday sermon, adding a couple of racist-tinged comments and then wiping fake tears from his eyes in a reference to Hillary's occasionally weepy campaign actions. You can see some of what was said on YouTube and read about what happened here in the Chicago Sun-Times, the home paper to Obama's church.