Pretty fly for a Rabbi

I’ve had a few nicknames over the years. Most of which I’ve liked. Dr. K (hence the blog url) was one of the first that stuck fairly strongly. I still don’t know why the creator of that nickname chose it but it does inspire me to someday make the Dr. part official. Special K is another new nickname given to me at one of my churches from some amazing youth. It has stuck in that circle and last night one of the 6 year olds said, “Special K? Can I talk into the microphone?”

Usually I’ll get called a holy nickname. Rev. Mother. Pastor SKarafanda. Holy Mom. None of which are particularly descriptive. My favorite though is Rabbi. I’ve only been called that a couple of times but it always gives me a chuckle. Despite the faith and gender issues, I do like to use my gifts of teaching so the translation of Rabbi as Teacher gives me a bit of joy.

The other day I was listening to XM 151 – laugh radio and caught the oldie but goodie Weird Al’s “Pretty Fly for a Rabbi”. So in honor of the song and the nickname here are the top three ways you can be a fly Christian Rabbi:

1) Know your subject. It’s really embarrassing when the teacher doesn’t know the basic information. I was once in a pastor’s meeting where a pastor said he was paraphrasing the Bible, when he was really paraphrasing Milton’s “Paradise Lost”. So not fly.

2) Know yourself. Make sure you’re authentic. If your social media profile is all crosses, robes, and stoles and you are in a contemporary, new church setting, then ask yourself who you are trying to reach or impress.

3) Know the lingo. You don’t have to be Mark Zuckerburg to know that those internets that Al Gore invented are really coming around. Don’t be fooled into thinking that MILF is an acronym for Man I Love Father-God, cause its not.

Its not that I’m an expert on today’s pop-culture but I’m just trying to help you out as I’ve embarrassed myself way too many times by being very “unfly.” So as you go out and transform the world know who you are and know whose you are and you’ll be about as fly as you can get.

Until Everyone Hears,