Conversation Expression Of Character; Church Goes Digital

Your conversation is the expression of your character as well as of your thoughts.

“For this reason, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous person is powerful in what it can achieve.” James 5:16.

I once had a guy who worked for me whom we all called, “Dude.” His name was “Dude” because every sentence he used started and ended with “Dude.”

“Dude, did you know that you can get extra cheese on your pizza? Dude.” He might say in a fit of wisdom.

Sometimes he didn’t have to say any other words at all.

If a cool car drove by he’d say, “Duuudddee.”

If he was upset at something it might be a very fast, “Dude.” If he was saying hello he’d half raise his head and say, “Dude.”

If he was saying goodbye he would half lower his head and say, “Dude.”

Over the years, I learned his different inflections of the word and often our conversations would run something like this.

He’d come into the office, raise his head and say, “Dude.”

“Dude,” I’d respond in recognition.

He’d throw his arms out to signify some large project he’d been working on and then bring his hands close to together and end the gesture with a thumbs up and say happily, “Dude!”

I’d nod my head in appreciation and with a smile say, “Dude!”

He’d then quickly nod his head and say, “Dude.” And head back out to work on something else.

He was the master of uptalk and the vocal fry.

Yep. I learned some new terms. Uptalk is saying a statement like it was a question. Say for example I asked my youngest what he did today. “Well first I cleaned my room? It was like messy. Then I mowed grass? It was like hot. Then I got a haircut? It was really, really long.” (Yes, this is an imaginary conversation.) Vocal fry is a low guttural noise at the end of a sentence to signify something. “He forgot my birthdaaaaaaaeeeeyyyy.” The sentence spoken aloud signified that some poor dude is in trouble for forgetting a birthday. However, spoken with the Vocal fry at the end, well, it means the dude is in biiiiiigggg trouble. Vocal fry is often used to make a hidden point.

I can’t help but think that when God hears prayers filled with uptalk and vocal fry He can’t help but roll His eyes, nudge Gabriel in the ribs and say, “Duuuudddee.”

UMC Goes Digital

Farmington United Methodist Church has gone digital in partnership with the Bible app YouVersion. Many of you have downloaded the Bible app on your smartphones. The app does much more than just look up passages of scripture. Especially for our church.

Launch the app and on the pull down menu on the top left hand side go to “Live.” It will ask to use your current location so click yes. There will be a list of “Events” that you can choose from. Farm- ington UMC has an event called “The Harvest” listed. Click on this event.

The app is free and very easy to use. All throughout the week you can read scriptures that tie into Sunday’s sermon. This is a very easy way to develop the Spiritual Disciplines of Bible Study, Reflection and prayer.

Those without a smart phone can go to the website: youversion/ live. Register with a log-in name and password then do a search in the search box on the right side of the page. Type in our zip code 72730.