I Must Shenan: The We-Wu for October 20-24, 2025

I had an ‘old man yelling at clouds’ moment this week. You can thank my sister Jennifer for it. She sent me a Short, and then she sent me a longer video about it. I was triggered, to say the least.

Do you know who Marvin Winans is? I didn’t. I know of his sister from Christian radio, but I could have gone a lot longer without learning about her brother and his ‘money lines.’ Yeah, those are apparently a thing. Anyway, best I can surmise, MW has a mega church in Detroit that has been under some kind of construction since 2008 (not a typo). There have been delays due to funding issues and legal challenges, including the city suing them for being an eyesore. (Probably, but let’s be honest - it’s Detroit.) So MW tells his congregation that they need to be more sacrificial in their giving, to the point that people got in money lines during a service according to how much they were giving. The video I saw was MW berating a woman for being in the $2,000 line while only having $1,200.

My blood boiled.

You may not have noticed, but I tend to be a bit sensitive when it comes to church and/or pastor issues. As both a pastor’s kid and now a regular churchgoer, I’ve seen and been privy to the myriad of criticisms that can arise. For this one, though, I don’t think I’m ever going to see anything biblical in what is happening. I have always believed that a pastor should never know who is giving what in tithes and offerings. I’m half tempted to mail him a copy of the Train & Multiply booklet “The Cheerful Giver” in which he will discover such biblical principles as tithing (Leviticus 27:30-32), keeping your giving between you and God (Matthew 6:4), and giving cheerfully according to what you are able (2 Corinthians 9:7) and not feeling forced.

Naturally, everyone came out later and said it was a big misunderstanding and no one felt pressured or meant to behave like a dipwad and it’s all peace and love now blah blah BLAH.

One day, I’m going to give in to my impulse to write my own epistle to the Church about just how much they are not going to enjoy Judgment Day.

But that day is not today.

Today, we are wrapping up the week, and it’s going to look a lot like previous weeks. I’m still working on Phase 2 materials, this time on a weekly guide about the life and ministry of Jesus. There is a coordinating PDF from Shepherds Global Classroom that we’re using as the base of the lessons. I tend to find myself just reading it instead of editing like I’m supposed to. It’s good stuff.

We continued our workshop on holiness on Tuesday. It was another banger, which is good because I was a bit distracted by being in the same group as the OMS president.

In the afternoon, I took another shift at the front desk. At one point, someone asked to speak to Jessica Hollopeter and I sent them to my own voicemail. I was so caught off guard! But they didn’t leave a message, so I have no idea who it was or what they wanted to talk about. Oh well!

The other thing I finished this week is my prayer letter! Yay! I got a bit heated, but I think it’s warranted. And it got approved, so I guess it wasn’t that bad.

Is anyone else starting to plan for Christmas? I’m getting there, and it’s terrifying. I need to start thinking about my Christmas letter now that the last regular prayer letter is done. I need to be in the right headspace for that - a little bit snarky and sleep-deprived. We’ll get there.

It’s just been me and Sarah in the hallway this week. Everyone else has been traveling. I like the quiet. But Sarah has too many meetings. We don’t get up to nearly as many shenanigans. Oh! But that reminds me…

(Sorry, that just made me laugh.)

But we did come up with a new prayer for 10:02. “Lord, bring more people to help us out with all of our crop.”

Eh, maybe you had to be there.

One final thing for the week is that I finally took myself to an ortho doc for my knees. They have been bothering me for a while (years), and my right knee sometimes just decides to stop working. For now, it looks like mild to moderate arthritis, and I need to start doing some physical therapy to keep it from becoming more. I’m not the best at keeping up with that kind of stuff, so you can pray for me there.

Speaking of knees, my mom’s knee is getting much better. Her wrist, not so much. She’s in a full cast now. I haven’t been able to sign it yet.

I think that’ll do it for the week. I have some small stuff AND big stuff to do this weekend, so wish me luck.

Bye!