Putting Peter Jackson in Perspective: An Interview with Greg Wright

In general, the church has a terrific theology of the written word. However, the ongoing worship-style squabble demonstrates that the church generally has an ill-defined theology of music, and the twentieth-century church has also demonstrated a schizophrenic theology of visual art. This is troubling since the art form of film combines words, music and visual elements. Segments of the church, of course, have long grasped the role of all art in ministry; but until we stop viewing film as either a tool of the enemy or merely a tool for evangelism, we will continue to be guilty of idolizing the written Gospel and demonizing that which God intended for good. That’s not a pretty scenario.

This is a great article and worth your time!

Americans favor Christian symbols, Barna says

I don't know what to think of this poll. What conclusions can we come to from these few statistics? It seems to me that cultural Christianity is widely accepted but true transformative apprenticeship to Jesus Christ is not. But I guess a poll like this helps Christians with there self-esteem. Whew! We aren't completely marginalized!

Frankly, who cares? What the church needs is transformation. What are culture needs are true apprentices of Jesus Christ, changing from the inside out, who love others.

Forget the mottos! (Hey, that could be a motto!) Start morphing. (Hey, another snappy motto! I'm on a roll!).

Sunday School Flannelgraph

Sunday School Flannelgraph
Originally uploaded by hawkenstein.

Welcome to our cutting edge, high tech Sunday School program!

I get a kick out of this each week when I see it.

U2 - Vertigo

I downloaded the new U2 single from itunes today. Great song and only .99!

Sacred Heart Jesuit Retreat House

Great retreat house just outside of Denver.

Tithing: What should the church teach its members about giving?

Interesting article on tithing.

Breaking the 300 Barrier

Articles like this disgust me! How is the Holy Spirit involved in church growth? You won't find any insight here just program thoughts and techniques. Yuk!

How to create a postcard newletter

Cool spin on the traditional newsletter! Great idea for churches.

BibleGateway.com

Try the new BibleGateway!

LookSmart's Furl - Your Personal Web

I received this email today and wanted to pass along this service to you. Now they are offering 5 gigs of storage! Wow!

Dear Furl Members,

Tomorrow we will be making an official announcement that Furl has been acquired. However, we wanted you to be the first to hear the news. We are joining LookSmart, a provider of Web search and research-quality articles search, in addition to other high-quality search products.

This is exciting news for several reasons. First, because LookSmart acquired Furl for the same reasons you probably use it - it is a great service that works well - and LookSmart has no intention of changing the things that make it great. On the contrary, LookSmart is committed to making existing features even more powerful.

To show how serious that commitment is, we are officially allocating 5 gigabytes (GB) of storage for each individual member's public archive, enough space to store tens of thousands of archived items.

Mile High Musings: The Party on the Side of the Road

Great idea! I hope we can pull off something like this here in Wray!

Scotsman.com News - Latest News - TV 'Priest Idol' Aims to Fill Church's Empty Pews

Yikes! I'd hate the pressure this would bring!

So, Who Owns the Sanctuary?

Don't you love denominations?

The Tension Regarding Intention : Youthworker Journal

Great article by Todd Hunter on intentional evangelism.

NarniaWeb - Your Source For Narnia Movie News

Here's information on the Narnia movie due out Christmas 2005.

Sermon mind maps

I am in the process of trying to upload my sermon mind maps to an online photo ablum. The link is included above. Once I get some of them uploaded, I'll let you know.

Test 

Nice game Q! The Broncos are looking good! If we can only keep the Snake from trying left-handed jump passes we'll be alright! 

It's All About Who, Jesus?

No doubt, much of the talk about 'emerging church' can be fit into the category of a new demographic needing everything tailored to its finicky, funky tastes. It's still all about me, just a me from a different market sector. It's as if we're asking for the set on The Truman Show to be redesigned for a newer, hipper Truman.

But if there's even a spark of something else at work in the emergent conversation, just a flicker of hope that the real God is to be found outside the dome of a narcissistic consumer religion (in any of its demographic forms), and that God is actually so wonderful that we would actually like to sing and preach about God for a while, more than ourselves, then we should fan that flame.

Great article from Brian McLaren

Reverse Mentoring

What if seasoned ministry leaders followed such an example and used reverse mentoring to gain understanding of the emerging culture? As postmodern thought continues to permeate our culture, church leaders would be wise to become fluent in the language of the emergent conversation. The best way to do this is to become a willing and intentional student of the culture, to become the humble protege instead of the mentor.

Do you know any pastors that are doing this? The article talks about the business world regularly doing this and benefiting greatly. I hope there are some pastors out there who are giving this a try.

Leadership and playing guitar

Interesting metaphor for leadership.

Exegeting images

If images are that powerful in their imprinting abilities, and if pastors are called to communicate in an "image-thinking" culture, why are we so determined to exegete words and so reluctant to exegete images?

Make you think article from Len Sweet.

The September 11 Digital Archive

Spend some time today praying for our world, President Bush, our troops, the victims, and above all peace.

Christian Book Summaries

Interesting idea. 5,000 word summaries of recent Christian books including direct quotes from the book and information about the author.

Wray Post Electronic Newspaper

I just discovered this e-newspaper covering Wray, Colorado and the surrounding areas. I had no idea someone out there was doing this so close to home! I wonder if they have stumbled upon my blog?

The Runaway Inn

My wife and I will be heading to this little inn in Joe's, Colorado next weekend to celebrate our 12 anniversary. We are really looking forward to some time away just for the two of us.

The Jesus Creed

Cool creed on Jordon Cooper's blog. Written by Brian McLaren.

On using sermon mind maps

Someone asked for help on reading the mind maps. To orient yourself to my mind maps start at the center and then work counterclockwise starting at roughly 3 o'clock. At the center of the map is the big idea of my sermon. Everything going out from that center is related to the big idea in some way whether it is explanation of the text, illustration, or application.

For me, these mind maps serve to get the sermon into my mind in a general form. I typically preach without notes or at the very least an outline. The mind map seems to work best with how my brain is wired. I can easily remember each point and what it relates to if I have taken the time to create a mind map. The little illustrations on some of them also help me remember.

If I lose my place or need a quick reminder, I have found that I can just glance at the map and find my way. Hope that helps!

More thoughts on 1 Timothy 1:12-17

I am also grateful that Jesus Christ displays the utmost patience with me. As I meditated on this verse the image that came to my mind was walking with my children. They all walk at different paces. Our youngest likes to stop and pick up everything. He takes his time. He is not in a hurry. He is far from understanding the goal of the walk...to get to where we are going. He is often distracted, often lagging behind, often in trouble, often in danger. My walk with Christ is much like this. I lag behind, I lose sight of the goal, I don't even know what the goal is many times, I am distracted, confused, in trouble, in danger. Yet Jesus paces with me, an idea that is wonderfully developed in the book, Shaping the Spiritual Life of Students by Richard R. Dunn. Jesus slows down to my speed. He comes alongside of me. The he leads me. He gently but relentlessly nudges me in the way I should go. Sometimes, he yanks me out of danger. Sometimes he walks with me through the trouble I'm in. But through all of it, he displays the utmost patience. Unlimited patience.

One thousand dead U.S. soldiers: Take it personally

Heartfelt reflection on the war in Iraq. Not sure if his conclusions are realistic (namely, how interested in peace are the Muslims?) but I definitely share his sentiments.

1 Timothy 1:12-17 reflections

I am wrestling with the "if" and the "how" of applying some of this passage. Is it appropriate for all believers to think that Jesus Christ considers us faithful? What does this expression mean? When I meditate on this verse, I must say that I find I am greatly lacking in faithfulness. Perhaps I have been a little bit faithful, but I know deep down inside that I lack in my faithfulness. I know I could be further down the path of apprenticeship to Jesus Christ. But as Dallas Willard in The Divine Conspiracy points out quoting from William Law's book A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life,

...if you will here stop and ask yourself why you are not as pious as the primitive Christians were, your own heart will tell you that it is neither through ignorance nor inability, but purely because you never thoroughly intended it.

Willard comments,

...it could well prove to be a major turning point in our life if we would, with Law's help, ask ourselves if we really do intend to be life students of Jesus. Do we really intend to do and be all of the high things we profess to believe in? Have we decided to do them? When did we decide it? And how did we implement that decision?

Intention and decision are absolutely fundamental in this matter of apprenticeship to Jesus...

These thoughts from Willard got me to thinking along the lines of David Allen's personal management concepts as written in his book Getting Things Done. Allen pushes the reader to define the next actions involved in getting things done. He also encourages a weekly review, a snapshot of how we are doing in getting things done, were we are in getting things done.

Can we take these concepts and use them in our spiritual lives? If the thing I desire is a dynamic relationship with Jesus, don't I have to intentionally determine what the next action is in experiencing that reality? And isn't Sunday morning and especially Communion Sundays the time for a weekly review? A time were I survey how well I am doing? A time to reflect on my life, my apprenticeship to Jesus, how well I am progressing? A time where God can point out my next actions, those things I must do or cease from doing in order to get further down the path? A time where I confess my failures from the previous week? Clearly a daily review would be most beneficial in our relationship with God! Hence many of the ancient disciplines of the church...

Please don't hear this the wrong way. I don't believe I can program my relationship with Jesus. I don't believe I am the initiator in this relationship. But if I fail to intentionally respond, if I fail to intentionally follow Jesus, I will fail as his apprentice.

Overall I take hope in this passage. Here Paul refers to himself as the worst of sinners. I know that very few of us actually believe this about ourselves. But if you stop and think...if you allow your mind to uncover the skeletons in your closet what do you find? For me, I find that I am the worst of sinners. No one could have possibly sinned worse than me! And fortunately by God's mercy you haven't found out about my sin! Fortunately by God's mercy my sin is forgiven and I am saved as Paul here states. In fact, Paul says it was for that very reason, the reason being, I am the worst sinner, that I have received mercy. If I were not the worst, if I were not a sinner, would I really need to receive mercy?

Lashed to the Mast

...the image aspects of pastoring, the parts that require meeting people's expectations, can be faked. We can impersonate a pastor without being a pastor.

A great article by Eugene Peterson on being a pastor.

Project Rebirth

Webcams capturing the rebuilding at Ground Zero. Check it out.

Forgetting God

Observing the modern world, French sociologist Jacques Ellul noted a striking trend: As the Christian gospel permeates society, it tends to produce values that, paradoxically, contradict the gospel. I sometimes test his theory while traveling overseas. I ask foreigners about the United States, the world's largest majority-Christian society.

Very interesting article worth your time and consideration.

Here's the logo for the Guitar Gods. 

The Guitar Gods

Some have been asking about my fantasy football team and how the draft went. It was a great night and we had a lot of fun talking smack and drafting our teams. I think I fared really well as I got the positions when I targeted them. Here's my team:

Roster

QB A. Brooks NO
QB C. Palmer CIN
RB K. Barlow SF
RB T. Henry BUF
RB T. Jones CHI
RB R. Anderson DAL
RB M. Pittman TB
WR T. Holt STL
WR D. Stallworth NO
WR K. Johnson DAL
WR R. Wayne IND
WR A. Lelie DEN
WR J. Galloway TB
TE T. Gonzalez KC
PK J. Feely ATL
Def Packers GB

The name of my team is the Guitar Gods. No theological significance, just a reference to my musical tastes! We'll see how the team does.

Here's my sermon map for Philemon. I realize they are hard to read. I am still working on other options like mind map software. However they are all rather expensive. Does anyone know of some inexpensive or even free mindmapping software? 

1 Timothy 1:12-17

I am experiencing this as a powerful passage this week. Through my Lectio Divina exercise, I too have experienced gratitude. Jesus Christ has given me strength at different times of my life. He strengthened me when I was between ministry positions delivering pizzas at Domino's and pulling wire in construction. He strengthens me in my current call as a small town pastor performing many ministry tasks that I was told I should avoid through "career counseling" I received in seminary. He strengthens me in my marriage, in parenting, in so many ways.

Yet there are so many times I do not avail myself to the strength he can provide.

I do not believe it to be a small coincidence that I am fasting this week as I study this passage. Fasting is a physical discipline that among other things, helps to remind us that the physical can be sustained by the spiritual. Surely the Apostle Paul had experienced this countless times in his life. Here, looking back at the years, he is able to be grateful for the many times Jesus strengthened him.

Philemon

The book of Philemon is very interesting. Right out the gate in studying this book, I have been quite perplexed by this question: Why does Paul address the letter not only to Philemon but also to Apphia, Archippus, and the church which meets in Philemon's home? Since this is a dispute between Philemon and Onesimus, why does Paul include these other people?

I ask this because whenever there is a dispute in our churches today, we tend to deal with it quietly behind closed doors. Are we too concerned with privacy? Are we too concerned with what others will think of us, especially if they disagree with us?

More than 100 killed in Russian school siege

I am so greatly grieved and troubled by this tragic attack in Russia.
Lord Jesus Christ, come quickly!

It looks like the first one worked okay. Not great but okay so I decided to try another one. 

I doubt this will be viewable. This is the mind map I used a few weeks ago for my sermon notes. I am still trying to figure out how to upload a copy so it is viewable. Thanks for your patience! 

January Trial Date Set for NHL's Bertuzzi

Just a follow up to the Steve Moore and Todd Bertuzzi incident. I haven't heard anything about how Steve Moore is doing. Maybe the Denver news will report on him this evening with the announcement of the trial date.