Ohio Plates

Yesterday I changed the license plates on my car.

I took off the Tennessee plates and popped on the Ohio plates. No big deal. Well, maybe a medium sized deal. I have trouble putting Ohio plates on my car and I have been trying to figure out why.

Part of the problem is that I am a native of Kentucky. Being adjoining states, I spent most of my growing up years making fun of people from Ohio. And they returned the favor. That’s just what you do. When I lived in Iowa we told Missouri and Minnesota jokes. In Tennessee we told Arkansas and Mississippi jokes. In Ohio we tell Kentucky and Indiana jokes.

For example: “What is the number one pickup line in Indiana?” “Nice tooth.” My favorite Ohio/Kentucky joke is: “Did you hear that a Kentucky pickup truck went off the bridge over the Ohio River connecting Ohio and Kentucky? Four out of six of the truck’s passengers drown. They were riding in the back and couldn’t get the tailgate down in time.” So, it wasn’t that I didn’t like Ohio; it was just that I had spent my younger life making fun of Ohio. So I didn’t want to drive a car that advertized the fact that I was an Ohio resident.

I had pretty much gotten over that problem, having lived in Ohio for over 20 years. But then I moved to Tennessee, bought a new car and tagged it with Tennessee plates. I ended up living in Memphis, Tennessee, for almost 3 years. And I loved living in Memphis. I enjoyed the culture of a southern city with much musical and good food history. Talented musicians were everywhere so I was able to hear lots of great music. The worship teams at the church I served (Lindenwood Christian Church) in Midtown Memphis were amazing – both traditional and contemporary. And then there about a zillion awesome restaurants available for meals. I was in heaven.

But the main reason I didn’t want to change plates was because to do so would be the last physical thing I would to sever ties with Tennessee and my friends. I knew we would always be friends; but it would also never be the same again. The folks at the church were some of the best ever. Intelligent, fun, kind and interesting; they were just great to be with. For example:

Morgan Parks: my associate minster, tour guide, lunch companion, provider of a family on loan and my best friend.

Cindy and Carol: support staff, constant source of entertainment, fun to be with, my best source of information, providers of wonderful smiles.

Phil, David, Chris and Courtney: Ministerial/program staff, good people, fun to hang with, psychotic IN A REALLY GOOD WAY, made for great and laugh filled staff meetings, and were hard working and loyal.

And then there are church members too many to mention. When Bob and I met we instantly bonded because we each spotted a kindred spirit. Harold and Sarah we the best friends and neighbors a guy could hope for. I had three of the most wonderful Board Chairs while I was at Lindenwood; smart, hardworking and very intelligent. Harold and Joe are retired ministers in the congregation and two amazing guys who were always there for me. Connie is hilarious and tended to think like me, which I found interesting and a little disconcerting. Anna, the chair of the Elders, who became a true spiritual sister. There were many who allowed me into their homes and their families: Cyndy and Harold, Morgan and the girls, John, Jeri and Megan, Bill and Ann Morris and others. And dozens of just wonderful friends: Karlyn and Nancy, Teresa, Joe, Kevin (He’s another whole blog J) and Beth, Ryan, Davey, Carolyn, Gene, Jonas, Ken, Charlie, Clay, Wayne, Herb and Beth, Carter, Sally, Chuck, Terry, Mike, Michelle, Brian and Emily and Lela and Steve and more.

What a wonderful group of people.

And they are why it was difficult to change my car tags.

Copyright © 2016, William T. McConnell, All Rights Reserved

Bill McConnell is the Interim Minister at Norwood Christian Church in Cincinnati, Ohio, and is a Church Transformation consultant and a Christian Leadership Coach. He is a frequent speaker at Church Transformation events. His latest book on church transformation is DEVELOPING A SIGNIFICANT CHURCH and is available at Westbow Press.

He can be contacted @ bill45053@gmail.com. Connect with him on Facebook @ William T. McConnell or on Twitter @billmc45053 or visit his Amazon Author Page @ Amazon

9 Reasons Unsociable People Like Social Media

There is a lot of chatter around the subject of the sociability of social media. Many questions are being asked. And many of them are good questions. Is social media good for our society or are there too many negatives to the large amount of time many people spend on social media? Do we spend so much time and energy connecting with people in the cyber world that we are failing to fully live a non-cyber life?

If you are observant you have seen a table full of teens or young adults in a restaurant with their faces buried in their smart phones texting other people about what they are doing. Which seems strange to me because all they are doing is sitting in a restaurant not talking to the people they have chosen to spend the evening with while texting people they have chosen to not be with. (Yes I know about prepositions.) The question is asked, “Are we missing the moments of life as we attempt to record the moments of life?” We have all seen the people who, during a child’s performance in a play or at a recital, are busy scurrying around the room attempting to get the best shot or camera angle. Will they have to go home and watch the video to really see the performance?

It is not unusual for me to forget my smart phone and go a day without it. Even so, I have been a bit concerned that I am too tethered to it. Yesterday I downloaded an app that registers how many times a day I check my phone. Of course, I have to check my phone to check the app that tells me how many times I check my phone. Somehow, that just seems wrong.

Often I go to lunch and leave it sitting on my desk. The only thing that motivates me to carry it is that if my wife calls me more than twice and I fail to pick up she assumes something horrible has happened to me. I hate to cause her that heartache and concern, so I try to remember to carry my phone. But I will admit that eating lunch without my phone works for me. Unlike some of colleagues who seem to spend a majority of the lunch hour texting and chatting on their phones. No doubt these conversations are of great importance but they leave me, the person sitting with them, feeling rather unimportant and out of the loop. I occasionally think about texting them just so I can have their attention. Since when did the people calling or texting us take priority over the people we are with physically? It is like the old days when I found myself in the check out at a department store and the clerk would stop checking me out to answer a phone call. Why does the phone take precedence? For years I have had the policy: If I am busy, my phone is busy. If I am with someone I will not pick up a call. (Unless it is my wife. Reason already stated.)

Here is the other side of that coin. Social media – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, texting and all the other forms it come in, works best for people like me. I am an introvert. Those who don’t understand introverts assume we are unsociable or antisocial. Not true. We introverts love people and we love conversations: Only we like you in small doses and are only interested in talking about meaningful matters. We love to talk but we abhor small talk. And even though most might not think it is designed for us, the “unsociable”, social media is a gift from God.

Unsociable people love social media because:

1. We can engage with you when and as often as we want to – or not.
2. We can end the conversations with the click of a button.
3. If you get on our nerves, we can unfriend you.
4. You can send us long texts and we don’t have to read them and you still got to say all you wanted to say.
5. We can answer you with an emoticon. Like this.
6. We can mark your email as spam and never see it or feel a need to read or respond to it.
7. If we don’t want to check Facebook we don’t have to look at it. For days at a time.
8. We save time because we think: Why spend three minutes texting you when we could just call you. And then we think: If I call you I have to talk to you – forget it. Thus we save all that time.
9. Twitter allows the user a message of no more than 140 characters. That is pretty much our maximum message anyway.

So, if you are looking for me, check out social media. And if I fail to respond to you try not to take it personally.

 Copyright © 2014, William T. McConnell, All Rights Reserved

Bill McConnell is Senior Minister at Lindenwood Christian Church in Memphis, Tennessee and is a Church Transformation consultant and a Christian Leadership Coach. He is a frequent speaker at Church Transformation events. His latest book on church transformation is DEVELOPING A SIGNIFICANT CHURCH and is available at Westbow Press. He can be contacted @ bill45053@gmail.com. Connect with him on Facebook or on Twitter @bill45053.