I was looking back at some of my earlier posts on this blog, smiling at this, shaking my head at that and wondering how I could even publish some of those other things. Something all writers do. Well, not just writers, any creator looks back at his creation and sighs sometimes or laughs. “Wow, that didn’t turn out the way I expected.” Or maybe, “That looks better now than it did when I started.”
When I was a boy, my father worked with his hands. He spent years working as a welder and craftsman at Murray’s Sheet metal shop in Parkersburg where his mates eventually made a little wand with a star on top that they gave him due to his wizardry with metal. It was made of stainless steel and rather heavy. I wonder what became of it? He had a unique way of seeing problems and often came up with surprising answers, which is why the really hard jobs came to him so often. He was a creator.
When we boys were born, he decided he didn’t want to raise us in the pollution of the Ohio Valley, so we settled in the magick-heavy valley of Sinking Creek near Glenville. For awhile he continued to work at Murray’s, but the commute was too long and he felt like he was missing out on raising his sons and so, Chapman Sheet Metal was born.
It was a small operation, dad and us boys really. But it put food on the table and kept us connected. Back then, air ducts for heating and air conditioning were made by hand at a metal brake. Bent to spec and installed by hand. Not cookie-cutter tubes that get tacked up in basements or slung thru attics. It was custom work. Individualized and special. It was an act of creation every time dad put in a furnace.
Dad created tons of things: tall bikes, winch-powered cranes, an underground house, solar heating systems, a metal bed….one of mom’s least favorite things. His creations weren’t always pretty or even functional, but he never stopped making something. He always had an idea for how to make it better. Everything.
He was a church leader, yet was for legalization of marijuana, quite the shocker during the 70’s. He thought the criminal element was worse than a few stoners eating pizza all night. He wanted to sing, but couldn’t carry a tune, so he worked like crazy at it. God bless JoAnn McHenry for her enormous patience. He knew, at an instinctive level, that The Church had gone wrong somewhere along the way and he applied all his work ethic and creativity to trying to fix Her.
He wasn’t always right, but he was always sincere. Thousands of people came to know Christ thru his ministry. He touched the lives of people wherever he went with a message that was accessible to working men and professors. “Try to do just a little more next time” was one of his main themes. “If you can say ‘Pray for me’ in church, then next time say ‘Please, pray for me.’” He was joining a long line of theologians who saw that something was amiss and worked to advance The Church as best he knew how. Something more than simple human failings was to blame, in his mind. There was some fundamental flaw in modern Christian teachings.
I think Earle Chapman would have liked Rob Bell.
For those of you unfamiliar with Rob Bell, he is causing a bit of a stir. He has a few books out, most notably Velvet Elvis and Love Wins that re-examine current doctrine and teachings. He is looking for that fundamental flaw in The Church and stepping on some toes while doing it. He, like my father, is part of a long line of discussion that has shaped and formed the church for ages. He, like my father isn’t always right (ask mom about that clunker of a metal bed) but he seems sincere and asks questions no one else wants to answer. Earle and Rob wouldn’t have agreed on everything, but it seems to me they think the same way.
I have only read thru the two books I mentioned earlier, just a single reading so far. I’m not buying his conclusions, but I’ll amen a lot of what he says about the love of God and the exclusion mind-set of The Church. He answers a lot of questions I was poorly asking in an earlier blog you can read here…http://jc-wheniwasaboy.blogspot.com/2010_07_01_archive.html.
So, if you are disenchanted with The Church or have left entirely, I am going to recommend you pick up a copy of Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith by Rob Bell. Does it have all the answers? No, but it asks questions you never thought of and answers some you are too afraid to voice.
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