No Church? No Problem

Sorry I've been gone so long. I think I burned out on the whole blogging thing and needed some time away. I am seeking to bring more balance in to many areas of my life. We'll see how it goes.

Here's an interesting quote from an article at Christianity Today called No Church? No Problem.

Unlike the Great Awakenings, which brought people into the church, this new movement "entails drawing people away from reliance upon a local church into a deeper connection with and reliance upon God." Already "millions of believers have stopped going to church," so Barna expects that in 20 years "only about one-third of the population will rely upon a local congregation as the primary or exclusive means for experiencing and expressing their faith." Down will go the number of churches, donations to churches, and the cultural influence of churches.

This doesn't sound too good for job security for pastors! But I hope it spells great things for the advancement of God's Kingdom. What are your thoughts about this trend?
Filed in: church, trends

More Problems with Evangelical Theology

This is an interesting article by Chuck Colson. He speaks of the weakness in evangelical theology to deal with suffering. I agree. I believe most evangelical theology doesn't even have a theology of suffering. It has plenty of answer for suffering but it provides us with very little on how to suffer. As Colson says,

I'm not sure how well the contemporary evangelical world prepares us for this struggle, which I suspect many evangelicals experience but fear to admit because of the expectations we create. At such times, we can turn for strength to older and richer theological traditions probably unfamiliar to many—writings by saints who endured agonies both physical and spiritual.

I've got to get this quote from Colson in as well:

Evangelicals must rely on more than cheerful tunes, easy answers, and happy smiles. We must dig deeply into the church's treasures to find what it is like to worship God, not because of our circumstances, but in spite of them.

What are your thoughts? Have you struggled or suffered and found your theology wanting?

Filed in: theology, evangelicalism

Ben Witherington on The Problem with Evangelical Theology

Recently I wrote about Ben Witherington's new book The Problem with Evangelical Theology. Thanks to D.P. here's a quote from Ben Witherington's blog concerning his book and what he hopes will be achieved by it:

It is my hope that this book which I have written will stir up a lot of discussion, not defensiveness or furor. I think in the 21rst century we need to learn to do our theology in a more Biblical way, not just use the Bible as a justification or proof text for the theology we want to do anyway. If we manage to do this then perhaps those two reformation principles will come alive again-- in reforming ourselves, we may become more Biblical persons, thinkers theologians, ethicists. And this would be an exceedingly good thing. The time for posturing, pretending, and polemics should be over.

So how can we do theology in a more biblical way? What would it mean to be more biblical in our theology?

Just for fun: the graphic above comes from a shirt.

Filed in: quotes, books, theology

Reading reflections - Paul Among the Postliberals

A friend and I are currently reading this book. Here's an interesting quote from the end of chapter 1:

That message and missions [Paul's mission to the nations] is precisely about God's deliverance of the Gentiles from their former religious-sociopolitical allegiances, in order that they might give their unreserved loyalty (pistis) to the one God of Israel who has invaded their world in Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit, in order that they might become a new people, under a new Lord and a new regime called the kingdom of God, the body of Christ, the ekklesia. That is justification. The Gentiles share in this new people and new regime by being baptized into the body of Christ and, in their newfound freedom from other gods and other lords, by becoming obedient and faithful to their Lord, repeating the pattern of his obedience and faithfulness in their whole way of life, in body and in soul, social and personal, active and passive, economic and political, within the body of Christ and as the body of Christ. That is faith. Their justification, therefore, is or ought to be immediately marked by a specific and visible way of being and living in the world as a social body. Every letter of Paul is oriented to that end; one searches in vain for any section within those letters that is not oriented to it. (emphasis is original)

At the core of this book and the first chapter is the discussion of the "rendering of the Greek phrase pistis Christou Iesou (Gal. 2:16 and its variants elsewhere)." Is this phrase to be understood as faith in or toward Jesus Christ with Jesus Christ as the object of the faith thus translating the phrase "faith in Jesus Christ" or is it a subjective genitive thus translating the phrase "the faith(fulness) of Christ."

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this issue and especially on the quote concerning faith and justification. Are those definitions that you can live with? How do you understand pistis Christou Iesou? Why do you understand it the way you do?

Filed in: books, quotes, theology, bible, hermeneutics

Catholic AnalysisCatholic Analysis: Full Text of New Document on Priesthood

The Catholic Church is getting a lot of press on the newly released Document on Priesthood. Here is an excerpt containing the most controversial portion:

(20) The spiritual director has the obligation to evaluate all the qualities of the candidate's personality and to make sure that he does not present disturbances of a sexual nature, which are incompatible with the priesthood. If a candidate practices homosexuality or presents deep-seated homosexual tendencies, his spiritual director, as well as his confessor, have the duty to dissuade him in conscience from proceeding toward ordination. It goes without saying that the candidate himself has the primary responsibility for his own formation.(21) He must offer himself trustingly to the discernment of the Church, of the bishop who calls him to orders, of the rector of the seminary, of his spiritual director and of the other seminary educators to whom the bishop or major superior has entrusted the task of forming future priests. It would be gravely dishonest for a candidate to hide his own homosexuality in order to proceed, despite everything, toward ordination. Such a deceitful attitude does not correspond to the spirit of truth, loyalty and openness that must characterize the personality of him who believes he is called to serve Christ and his Church in the ministerial priesthood.

So here's an interesting question. If, for the purposes of this discussion, some people are predisposed genetically to homosexuality, but they vow to be celibate as a priest, and indeed they truly remain celibate, then should they be banned from ordination and serving as a priest? Is this fundamentally different from a celibate heterosexual being ordained and serving as a priest?

Another intriguing way of wording this question is this: If some people are genetically predisposed to homosexuality, then would God call these people to serve as celibate priests?

What do you think? I can see arguments for both sides.

Filed in: catholicism, ordination, ministry, church, theology

C.S. Lewis and the consolation of religion

From the Writer's Almanac for November 29, 2005:

It's the birthday of C. S. (Clive Staples) Lewis, born in Belfast, Ireland, (1898), the author of the children's series about the land of Narnia. He also wrote The Screwtape Letters (1941), in which he wrote, "The safest road to Hell is the gradual one—the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts." He was a confident Oxford philosopher, not at all prepared to find himself a Christian convert. To his friend Owen Barfield he wrote: "Terrible things have happened to me. The 'Spirit' or 'Real I' is showing an alarming tendency to becoming much more personal and is taking the offensive, and behaving just like God. You'd better come on Monday at the latest or I may have entered a monastery." He said, "Talk to me about the truth of religion and I'll listen gladly. Talk to me about the duty of religion and I'll listen submissively. But don't come talking to me about the consolations of religion or I shall suspect that you don't understand."

This is rather timely as the release of Narnia is a little over a week away. I love Lewis' quote on "the consolations of religion."

In our town, we buried 70 people this year. That may not sound like a lot until you know that our town has a population of only 2200! We lost 3% of the town's population by death this year!

And talking about the consolations of religion does very little for deeply grieving people. In fact, I've seen it do much more harm than good. Sometimes words seem so shallow when the pain is so deep!

As a pastor, I find that I often need to give people permission to be angry, to question, to allow themselves to hurt. Sometimes I have to help kick start the grieving process and give them permission to keep it going as long as they need. Many of my pastoral visits following the funeral are sitting with someone, holding their hand, allowing them to weep, and weeping with them. I believe one of the greatest "consolations of religion" as Lewis puts it, is presence. "The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood" (John 1:14, The Message).

More and more, I am convinced that in our ruggedly individualistic, independent, disconnected and fractured society, becoming flesh and blood, and moving into the neighborhood is one of the greatest challenges and opportunities for the Church today.

So how do we move into the neighborhood? And if we do it well, what price is there to pay? What will we sacrifice to make it happen?
Filed in: quotes, C.S. Lewis, ministry

Messy Scriptures - The Story of the Sacred Scroll

Here’s a quote from Dr. Jim Dixon, senior pastor of Cherry Hills Community Church in a message he delivered entitled “The Story of the Sacred Scroll.” This quote comes in the context of discussing biblical infallibility and inerrancy:

But you see, there is a problem with these words. A problem with the word infallible, a problem with the word inerrant. And the problem is these words are not found in the Bible. The Bible doesn’t use these words to describe itself. Now the concepts behind these words may be found in the Bible, depending on how you define those concepts, but you see the Bible doesn’t include those words.

And there’s a deeper problem. The deeper problem is that the words inerrancy and infallibility, they tend to kind of give you a static view of the Bible. And the Bible proclaims of itself it is not static it is dynamic, it is active, it is alive. I mean this is not some kind of a carcass you can perform an autopsy on. The Bible is living and active.

Of course the word the Bible uses to define itself with regard to its authority is inspiration. All Scripture is inspired of God. But the Greek word, the Greek word is theopneustos which literally means God-breathed. That’s what the Bible says of itself, all Scripture is God-breathed. The breath of God is on this book.

His discussion of these doctrines really resonates with me!

So what do you think? Do you agree that there is a problem with these words, with these concepts? Do these concepts cause us to see the Bible as static rather than dynamic?
Filed in: quotes, theology, scripture, bible

The Underrated Spiritual Secret

Before we eat turkey and watch the Broncos beat the Cowboys, take some time to read this great article on the spiritual discipline of being grateful. Here's a quote to whet your appetite:

Developing the meditative habit of constantly whispering thanks to him—no matter the situation—is, in fact, a mustard seed of life-changing power. Radical, for it goes to the root of who we are. Small, seemingly insignificant, yet it has the power to change our lives and blow our socks off, right in the midst of the everyday. When we really give God thanks in everything, we are acknowledging that he is sovereign and that we trust him. And we find that it changes us.

Go Broncos!
Filed in: spiritual discipline, holiday

Theological distinctives poll

Since we are having such a great discussion concerning theological distinctives (and tomorrow's Thanksgiving and I may not be able to update the blog for a few days!) I thought we'd try a little poll.

Theological distinctives
As to theological distinctives, I fall most in this stream...
	Traditional Roman Catholic
	Lutheran
	Anabaptist
	Reformed
	Arminian
	Wesleyan
	Pentecostal
	Neo-orthodox
	Liberal
	This Poll by hawkenstein
Click here to view results

Filed in: quiz, theology

Redeeming Harry Potter

Harry Potter. For some in the Christian community them's fightin' words! Here's an interesting article and a quote to grab your attention:

I was recently interviewed on live radio about current movies, and when asked which I was looking forward to the most, I rattled off a few of my obvious choices—including Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, which opens this week.

"Uh oh," said the host half-jokingly, "you've just lost half our audience." I was then asked to justify how a Christian could possibly accept and endorse a series of books and films that promotes the occult. Looking back on my fumbled response, I can't help but think of that verse in 1 Peter about being prepared to give an answer to anyone who asks.

Harry Potter remains a hot potato, polarizing Christians left and right because of three words: wizards, witches, and magic. Deuteronomy 18:10-11 warns us to avoid engaging in pagan rituals and sorcery, and for sure, Christianity and witchcraft don't mix.

So what's your opinion of Harry Potter? Can Christians and Harry Potter get along?
Filed in: movies, culture

Megachurch Google sightseeing: Pulpit Rock Church

I grew up at a megachurch in Denver called Cherry Hills Community Church. I also served there as the junior high youth pastor for awhile. Now I serve two small churches that between the two average 150 in attendance. I arrived here three years ago and both churches have experienced growth. But in a town of 2000, we can only expect to grow so much. We actually have nearly 10% of the town's population attending one of our two churches. How many churches can make that claim!

In these small churches I am often amazed at the scarcity mentality. Much of the time, the leadership is just trying to survive. It's frustrating because it can keep us from risking, moving out in faith.

But a scarcity mentality also characterizes many large and megachurches. It seems to me, that it's just human nature. To think about what we don't have or can't do comes easily to us.

Earlier this year, when Google first released Googlemaps, I started posting megachurch Google sightseeing posts just for fun. There's not really a purpose to them. But it does allow me to visit many megachurch websites and get a feel for them. It also shows me just how many resources the kingdom of God has (though this is obviously just the tip of the iceberg!) Here's the vision and mission for Pulpit Rock Church.

Our Vision
To see lives transformed as we influence our world out of our intimacy with God.

At Pulpit Rock Church we want to see lives transformed by the power of God. In order for that to happen we know that our influence on our world must grow out of an intimate relationship with God.

Our Mission
To passionately pursue God, extend the hands and heart of Christ, build biblical community, and establish a legacy of faith.

To the extent we do these things, we are confident the Spirit of God will transform our lives and transform our community for His glory.

I remember spending staff retreats hammering out vision and mission statements. It was a good exercise but it always looked better on paper. On paper we could say we were going to do or be about anything we wanted to. But to actually achieve those things in the vast majority of the thousands that came on any given Sunday? That is quite another thing.

My two little churches don't have a written vision or mission statement. Do you think churches need one? It seems the more statements like these I read, the more they sound the same. What's the value of a vision and mission statement for a church?

Filed in: church, googlemapssightseeing

Expletive Undeleted 2: The F-bomb Fallout

I earlier blogged about part 1 of Expletive Undeleted. Here's part 2. The quote tells you what Mike Sares, the pastor of Scum of the Earth decided to do:

Before Makkai stood up to read, Sares thought it best to issue a disclaimer. “I told the congregation that the next piece was R-rated,” Sares recalls.

Read the rest and tell me what do you think? Did he make the right decision?Filed in: worship, theology, culture

The Problem with Evangelical Theologies

From Christianity Today here, is a fantastic interview with Ben Witherington III. I really need to get his book The Problem with Evangelical Theology. Here's how Dr. Witherington describes the problem:

It (evangelical theology) has exegetical weaknesses that are not recognized or owned up to by the various evangelical Protestant strains of theology. That's what it boils down to...

The issue is not really with Christology, the Trinity, the virginal conception, the bodily resurrection of Jesus, or the Bible as the Word of God. The issues I'm concerned about are the distinctives of Calvinist, Arminian, dispensational, or Pentecostal theology. When they try to go some particular direction that's specific to their theological system, that's precisely the point in their argument at which they are exegetically weakest.

Books like this give someone like me hope. I have long struggled with the theological distinctives in each theological stream. I am from a reformed presbyterian background, but I am not Calvinist enough for most Calvinists. My parents and grandparents grew up in the Assemblies of God and we attended until I was in sixth grade. Yet many of the pentecostal distinctives do not resonate with me. (Though I greatly respect my cousin's beliefs and scholarly insights!)

I have found it difficult to find a theological home in which to minister. Initially this is what attracted me to the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). But they are "so open minded that their brains leaked out" (Steve Taylor, Whatcha Gonna Do When Your Numbers Up).

So are there any good theological homes for a mutt like me?

Witherington argues that postmodernism presents us with a "new opportunity to re-engage the biblical text, which is trying to present word pictures and stories to a world that wants not just answers to its questions, but also its imagination fired up."

These observations are especially poignant:

We have to remember that those who wrote the Bible were not late-Western Christians suffering from post-Enlightenment psychoses. These were people who lived in storied worlds, in an oral culture where storytelling was the essence of the thing. Most people in that culture were not even literate. They didn't live in a world bound by texts.

The Bible was not written in a text-oriented culture but for an oral culture. So these documents were meant to be heard. When you read them out loud in Greek, you notice alliteration and poetry and all kinds of things going on that are totally lost in translation. I think the oral dimension of the biblical world, very much connected to storytelling, is a crucial dimension and is a key to understanding the theology in those texts.

So a question for you all: Is Witherington on to something here? If so, how can we become more faithful to what the Bible teaches? Does postmodernism truly represent a new opportunity to be more faithful to what the Bible teaches as opposed to doctrinal distinctives?
Filed in: theology, hermeneutics

Electrocuted pastor's final prayer: 'Surprise me, God'

It was bound to happen. Christians are seeking to make sense of Rev. Kyle Lake's tragic death a few weeks ago. This article describes the incident and the theological questions surrounding it:

During a service last Sunday morning, Rev. Kyle Lake was standing in waist-high water as he prepared to baptize a woman. When he reached for a corded microphone, the 33-year-old was jolted by electricity, and did not survive. The woman going to be baptized was unharmed.

The incident took place just minutes after the 800 members in attendance had prayed aloud, "Surprise me, God."

When asked if he thought the events were result of asking to be surprised, Esau, who witnessed the electrocution, said, "I wish I could answer that. I honestly, truly don't know. That gets you into all kinds of really, really hard questions. 'Does God cause everything to happen?' or 'Is there tragedy and chaos and stuff in the world because it's the natural consequences of humankind and our freedom of choice?'"

These are indeed very hard questions. Yet some are confident they have the answer and are pronouncing this as God's judgment on the emerging church.

This tragedy forces us to ask why. Why? Why did this happen? Why did it happen this way? Were was God? Why did God allow this to happen?

Clearly there are no easy answers. So what do you think? God's judgment for heresy? Tragic accident? If it was an accident, what about God's sovereignty?
Filed in: theology

Hermeneutics, Anyone? - Christianity Today Magazine

Beyond the Bible sounds like a very interesting book based on this review. Check out this quote:

The book's title, Beyond the Bible, is a recognition that doctrine develops. Even Protestants who are fond of proclaiming the Reformation battle cry "Scripture alone!" cannot pretend that every aspect of the Christian faith is explicitly taught in Scripture. The most obvious examples are the doctrine of the Trinity and the high Christology of Chalcedon. Biblical revelation points us ineluctably toward those truths, but the Bible writers never make them explicit.

Filed in: books, interpretation, hermeneutics

Christian Meditation part 2, quiz

Christian meditation
Do you practice Christian meditation regularly?
	Yes, daily
	Yes, weekly
	Yes, monthly
	No
	No, Christian and meditation are oxymorons
	This Poll by hawkenstein
Click here to view results

Filed in: spiritual discipline, quiz, religion

New Scientist Breaking News - Meditation builds up the brain

This article is fascinating to think about. Here's the opening lines:

Meditating does more than just feel good and calm you down, it makes you perform better – and alters the structure of your brain, researchers have found.

Meditation has come under attack from many in the Christian world and for good reason. Sadly, the new age movement and other non-Christian religions have used meditation for centuries. Yet we read in the Bible, about meditating all over the place, especially in the Psalms.

It looks to me that Christians need to reaquaint themselves with the practice of meditation. So what should a Christian meditate on? What is Christian meditation?

The Psalms give us many ideas:
God's law
God' unfailing love
God's precepts and his ways
God's decrees
God's wonders
God's statutes
God's promises
God's works

Other ideas can be found on the web including this wikipedia article, which describes Christian meditation as

a form of quiet (but not necessarily silent) contemplation often associated with prayer or scripture study. It is rooted in the Bible, which directs its readers to meditate. In Joshua 1:8, God commands his people to meditate on his word day and night to instill obedience. The psalmist says that "his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night" (Psalm 1:2). The Bible mentions meditate or meditation twenty times.

That's quite a list to get started with! So what's your experience with meditation?
Filed in: spiritual discipline, science, religion

Tagging with BlogThis! - Freshblog

I've been trying to find a way to tag my posts on blogger. I think I've found a way. Basically my tags will be located on a del.icio.us account specifically for my blog. Clicking on the tag will take you to the del.icio.us page and allow you to find items from the same category. These are the instructions via FreshBlog for adding this ability to your blog.

CategoryTagBlogThis!

I have made some very minor changes to the script so that the tags link to my del.icio.us account (and as we know by now, will still be visible in technorati!!) As before, all that you need to do to make this bookmarklet work for you is to right click it on your links bar, select properties, scroll through the script to the very end and replace my del.icio.us signon at the end of the URL http://del.icio.us/***** with your own. Now you can tag & categorise with blogthis!! Tag keywords should be seperated with commas.

Filed in: tagging, blogger

Pat Robertson Warns Pa. Town of Disaster

Pat strikes again!

"I'd like to say to the good citizens of Dover: If there is a disaster in your area, don't turn to God. You just rejected him from your city," Robertson said on the Christian Broadcasting Network's "700 Club."

Does anyone else cringe whenever you hear this guy open his mouth?
Filed in: quotes, religion

Priest Idol

Just came across this interview. Here's the introduction to orient you to it.

How many American priests end up in their own reality show on British television? James McCaskill did just that when he moved last year from Pittsburgh to the town of Lundwood in England's South Yorkshire district. He was brought in to revitalize a church whose congregation had dropped below ten, and his turnaround efforts were filmed for one year by a camera crew. The results will air—under the name Priest Idol—in a three-part series in November on the UK's Channel 4. Nate Anderson sat down with McCaskill on a recent visit to the U.S. to talk about ministry and media.

I have quite a mixture of feelings regarding this idea. Number 1 is the intrusion of a camera crew into the work of a pastor. How on earth could people open up with the minister and really share their lives with a camera crew present?

And talk about being in a fishbowl:

The worst aspect of it was that I did feel a lot of pressure from the film crew to "film this tomorrow," and I was trying to earn the trust of people in the congregation who didn't want things to happen so fast, and I had the archdeacon tell me, "You need to make this happen and that happen," and all this is being filmed, and they're all watching me, and I'm supposed to perform and produce and succeed—which really overwhelmed me at times. There was a point, after I'd been there about three months, I started having a panic, thinking, "We're not going to have anything to show; we're not going to have anything to make good TV." Which sounds terrible—a minister of the church saying that he's worried about making good TV.

This sounds like such a bizarre experiment! What are your thoughts?
Filed in: religion, tv, culture

Out in the Sticks on SuprGlu

SuprGlu is one of the coolest things I have come across in a while! You can set it up to receive all kinds of RSS feeds in one place. My page shows my RSS feeds from my blog, my playlist, my 43 things, my 43 places, my All Consuming, my del.icio.us links, and my flickr photos.

The style is that of a blog. Check it out and try your own!

Expletive Undeleted: Dropping the F-bomb in Church from the Leadership Blog

Here's a great case study (though I doubt I'd ever be faced with this dilemma in my two churches).

"A few days before Christmas, pastor Mike Sares got a call from his associate. “Mike,” he said, “Mary Kate Makkai has agreed to read one of her poems at the Christmas Eve service. It’s really, really good, but it’s got the F-bomb in it several times, and I just thought I should check with you about that.”"

Check out the entire article here.

Warfare worldview evidence: Copts' Night of Terror

"Copts will long remember Friday, October 21, as a night of terror, flame, and violence in Alexandria. Late that evening, thousands of rioting Muslims targeted three poorly protected Protestant congregations and an Orthodox church in the Muharram Bey section of Alexandria. Muslims were venting their anger over a video of a Christian play, produced at an Orthodox church. Muslims allege the video defamed Islam.

Days after the violence, I visited Christian congregations all over Alexandria and found everyday believers in a state of anxiety and shock over the attacks. Muslim-Christian violence, they told me, was something that happened in poor areas of Cairo or rural Upper Egypt, not Alexandria."

Wired News: Eat, Sleep, Work, Consume, Die

Ted the Gerbil
Originally uploaded by meke.

This is a powerful article that speaks much truth. Consider this great quote:

"My expectations have been raised to this ridiculous level by technology running amok through my heretofore-bucolic existence. I used to be a laid-back guy. Now I'm impatient. I chafe. I get irritable when my gratification isn't instantaneous. And it isn't just me. The whole world is bitchier these days.

I'm old enough to remember when waiting a few days for a letter to arrive was standard operating procedure, even in the bare-knuckles business world. I recall a time without answering machines, when you just had to keep calling back on your rotary phone until someone picked up. (Which had the unintended benefit of allowing you to reconsider whether the original call was even worth making in the first place.) The world moved at a more leisurely pace and, humanistically speaking, we were all the better for it.

Just because technology makes it possible for us to work 10 times faster than we used to doesn't mean we should do it. The body may be able to withstand the strain -- for a while -- but the spirit isn't meant to flail away uselessly on the commercial gerbil wheel."

The author, Tony Long is copy chief of Wired News. Maybe you thought you were reading an excerpt from the Constructive Curmudgeon but alas this is Wired News making this commentary all the more powerful.
For discussion: How do you feel about work, technology, and consumerism? Is your body keeping pace but your soul falling behind?

Good Morning, Evangelicals! - Christianity Today Magazine

The following quote describes an interesting approach to church and church programs. This sounds a lot like Frank Tillapaugh's ideas as communicated in his book Calling.

"Haggard is so enthusiastic about free-market economics that he applies it to church. New Life offers hundreds of small-group activities, everything from 'Growing in God as a Wife and Mother' to 'Holy Hip-Hop Jam Session.' How do the pastors decide what to include? They don't. If someone comes up with an idea, and that person passes a basic screening, the church will help promote the group. New Life organizes the marketplace but leaves the details to the people, who write their own programs."

Sounds like a great idea to me! It would definitely keep churches from uttering those seven last words of a church: "We've never done it that way before!"

Good Morning, Evangelicals! - Christianity Today Magazine

Here's another excerpt from the Christianity Today article on Ted Haggard. At the end of this quote is a great line:

"Prominently displayed are books by culture warriors like Pat Robertson and Phyllis Schlafly, but also books by public-policy experts, historians, and analysts of secular culture like Dinesh D'Souza, Samuel Huntington, Bernard Lewis, Newt Gingrich, Thomas Friedman, and David Gergen. Yet we are in a church bookstore, where nearly all the titles are inspirational. Haggard is telling his congregation, Think big. Think about the whole world. The Bible does not tell you everything you need to know."

What is your experience in this area? Do you agree with this idea?

Good Morning, Evangelicals! - Christianity Today Magazine

Here's an interesting article on Ted Haggard teh president of the National Association of Evangelicals. The following quote includes Haggard's definition of an evangelical:

'When I became president of the NAE [National Association of Evangelicals],' Haggard tells the Inquirer's Nussbaum, 'the talk was about doing away with the term evangelical. Evangelicalism was morphing and changing so much that people were wondering if the term applied. The first decision I made as president was to start using the term prolifically and defining it simply. I define an evangelical as a person who believes Jesus Christ is the Son of God, that the Bible is the Word of God, and that you must be born again.'

So what do you think of his definition? Do you agree or disagree? Are you an evangelical according to this definition?

"All things to all men" or "Be ye separate"? - Christian History

Here's another great article from Chris Armstrong encouraging all of us to read more great church history biographies. I have included a passage from his article that I found particularly interesting. Please read it and let me know what you think. Specifically, do you think his assessment of the Emergents (as he calls them) is correct? Do you believe Emergents agree with both the peculiar people thinking and the intrepid translator thinking? Here's the quote:

"Christian churches, say the Emergents, need to look like Christian churches—down to the crosses, candles, and even (if necessary), the stained glass; and they need to teach like Christian churches—including a hearty dose of good 'vintage' doctrine.

So our Emergent friends would likely agree with both parties in this dispute: the church needs both to find new ways of translating the gospel to directly address the questions of the day (per Niebuhr), and to refuse to buckle to secular culture by knocking the sharp edges off of Jesus' radical kingdom message and pretending that 'we Christians are really just like the rest of you folks!' (per Hauerwas)."

Exploring a Parallel Universe - Christianity Today Magazine

In this article Philip Yancey asks "why does the word 'evangelical' threaten so many people in our culture." His thoughts, especially his closing paragraph should be taken to heart by us all! Here's the opening to get you started:

"For almost ten years, I have participated in a book group comprising people who attended the University of Chicago. Mostly we read current novels, with a preference for those authors (Philip Roth, Saul Bellow, J. M. Coetzee) who have a connection with the school. The group includes a Marxist-leaning professor of philosophy, a childhood-development specialist, a pharmaceutical researcher, a neurologist, and an attorney.

I marvel in our meetings at how the same book can evoke radically different responses."

Does Electrocution Happen for a Reason? - Christianity Today Magazine

Here is an excerpt from Kyle Lake's book to ponder at the time of his tragic death.

"We'll never know what Kyle Lake would have said about the reason why, when he reached for a microphone as he was performing a baptism in front of 800 people, he was fatally electrocuted. But his explanation of a verse that may be infuriating to hear right now to some of those he left behind—Romans 8:28—may at least hint at his answer. It is reprinted, with the publisher's permission, an excerpt from Understanding God's Will: How to Hack the Equation Without Formulas (Relevant, 2004)."

Warfare worldview evidence: Christian Teens Beheaded in Indonesia

Ever since I became familiar with Greg Boyd and his books, especially God at War, I have been wrestling with my reformed roots, which emphasize the sovereignty of God and understand God's sovereignty and omnipotence to mean total, absolute meticulous control. The understanding is that God has a "blueprint" for history that he is following. But does the evidence in the world around us support this view? Or does the evidence suggest a warfare worldview as argued for by Greg Boyd? To help me and perhaps you wrestle through this issue, I've decided to start blogging evidence for a warfare worldview. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this issue as we seek to sort this out. Here's the first post:

In what one Indonesian human rights activist describes as the latest attack in an ongoing terror campaign against Christians of Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, three teenage girls en route to school through a cocoa plantation were beheaded Saturday morning, apparently by Muslims.

Theresia Murangke, 14, and Ida Lambuaga and Alfina Yarni Sambue, both 15, were attacked one mile from Sayo village near the town of Poso, reports Indonesian Christian journalist Ibrahim Buaya, who formerly lived in this volatile region of Indonesia. A fourth girl, Noviana Malewa, 14, escaped from her attackers with machete wounds to her face. Buaya reported that she is in Poso General Hospital under heavy guard. The Associated Press reported that Noviana told police the six attackers wore black shirts.

1,000 Attend Service For Pastor Electrocuted During Baptism

This is a terrible tragedy. Kyle Lake will be missed. May he rest in peace.

A Halloween Solution - Christianity Today Magazine

Halloween...probably the most controversial of holidays in America. Here's a fun, short article dealing with the day.

Emerging Solutions—and Problems - Christianity Today Magazine

Sorry for the long delay since I last posted! I've been rather busy with hospital visitation, funerals, leadership issues, denominational meetings, alt.worship services, some big time spiritual warfare, and my growing family. Here's an article that caught my eye. Perhaps you have followed the flap over Carson's book Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church. If not, this article will introduce you to some of the issues. I feel I often straddle the fence on the issue of the emerging church. I haven't jumped in with both feet, but the preaching of Tim Keel and Rob Bell really resonants with me and much of what I have read by McLaren and others does as well. Yet I find myself torn. I also find much that doesn't sit well with me. I think that's why the following quote from the article sums up my feelings as well:

Rather than becoming antagonists, Carson and McLaren should continue in dialogue, so the academic theologian and the missional practitioner might be mutually enriched and refocused.

The 100 Minute Bible

The 100-Minute Bible is primarily intended for people who have an interest in Christianity but not the time (nor tenacity!) to read the whole Bible

This concept is really bugging me! What has been determined to be the "core" of the Bible? Can you really pick out the principle stories? And who says which stories are the principle stories?

I have found that people make time for the things they are interested in. If you are interested in fly fishing, quilting, mathematics, philosophy, etc. there are no shortcuts to growing in your understanding of these things. You have to put effort forth. And people do, if they are interested. Why should the Bible be any different? I think the 100 Minute Bible is sending the wrong message! What do you think? Are you as bugged by this as me, or do I need to just chill out?

Old Words, Vibrant Faith - Christianity Today Magazine

Check out this interview with Charlie Lowell of Jars of Clay taking about the band's CD, Redemption Songs. I appreciate his thoughts and his sentiment concerning the hymns!

These songs have been in the band for years. Some of them we wrote for the record, like 'God Will Lift Up Your Head' and 'Jesus, I Lift My Eyes.' Some of them we have been singing backstage in our dressing room or at church for years. But it's new to our audience. It's something we haven't really talked about. There was this sort of modern worship thing, and we felt like black sheep. But times came around and we felt like this is really valuable and could be something that the church even needs right now. Maybe the church needs some of these songs that take us back to our roots and foundation.

Why? - Christianity Today Magazine

Here's a short article giving several different answers to the question of why concerning hurricane Katrina and Rita.

The debate over the meaning of the hurricane started when it became clear that federal, state, and local officials were having trouble responding to the disaster.

Democrats said the hurricane revealed inept leadership and bias against the poor. Republicans said government failures showed that the private sector could do a better job.

Muslim militants said it was Allah's judgment. Louis Farrakhan trumpeted a Black Muslim view that Katrina was judgment for the Iraq War. Ovadia Yosef, a leading Orthodox Jewish rabbi in Israel, said the hurricane was punishment for U.S. leaders forcing Israel out of the Gaza Strip.

Book Review: 90 Minutes in Heaven by Don Piper

Have you ever wondered what life after death is like? Do books about near death experiences interest you? Then you may enjoy this book. Don Piper shares his incredible story of death, pain, and life in his book 90 Minutes in Heaven.

Piper died in a terrible car accident on a rural Texas highway. He was dead for 90 minutes. During that time, he went to heaven but came back to life on earth after a pastor prayed for him.

Repeatedly, Piper says that words cannot possibly describe what heaven is like. Piper is greeted by deceased friends and family, sees the pearly gates and golden streets, and hears wonderful music.

After describing his brief glimpse of heaven, the rest of the book recounts his trying struggle to recover from his horrific injuries. The intense pain and knowledge that he will never again be normal lead Piper to despair, depression, and frustration. Fortunately, God places several people in Piper’s life who help him through his depression and despair. Piper begins to share his experience with others and finds God working through his story.

Overall it is a good book. His description of the car accident, heaven and the painful recovery are powerful. Many of the lessons he learned through this ordeal are very helpful. One such lesson for me was allowing people to minister to me because it enables them to live out their calling.

But several things bothered me in the book. One was the author’s repeated attempts at interpreting what he experienced in terms of his theological presuppositions. Most obvious were Piper’s repeated comments concerning the absence of time in heaven and yet he experienced sequence. He met one relative first, then another, then a friend, and so on. He did this first, and this next, and so on. He heard this song, which had these notes, played in this sequence, and so on. If he experienced obvious sequence in heaven, which would indicate the passage of time, why doesn’t the author reinterpret his theology in light of his new experience?

Another frustrating aspect of the book was the overall weakness I see in many evangelical Christians (myself included!) as exemplified in Piper. Piper is a Baptist minister and I kept asking myself what this book would be like if a minister with a more contemplative, sacramental worldview had experienced this same trial. I commend Piper for his openness and allowing himself to be vulnerable. I commend Piper for allowing us to see him when he was not at his best. I commend Piper for writing a book that doesn’t present himself as the most likeable guy. But overall, I feel he reflects so many Christians today who do not have a deep, contemplative relationship with God and who lack a theology that includes suffering.

Don’t get me wrong. I would not have handled his situation any better than he did. But I do believe that his analytical approach to this ordeal by seeking to find answers is typical of many evangelical Christians today. We rarely seize moments that will allow us to contemplate the sufferings of Christ (and obviously none of us want to do this!). To me some of his reflections highlight some of the weaknesses of a purely analytical, rational approach to our relationship with God. It feels to me, based on the teachings of Jesus and Paul, that we should have a far better perspective on suffering and pain than we typically do.

Let me encourage you to read this book. And let me encourage you by reading this book to place yourself in Piper’s place and develop a powerful, thoughtful theology of suffering.

Thanks to Paige Harvey of PS Media Relations for sending me a copy of this book to review.

Out in the sticks extreme makeover coming (I hope!)

Outinthesticksoct
Originally uploaded by hawkenstein.

I am growing tried of the look of my blog. I am currently trying to rework it and learn a thing or two along the way. Please be patient if things go completely crazy!

These changes will coincide with some huge changes going on at the churches I pastor. I plan to share about all of that in the near future.

Grace and peace,
Steve

Book Review: Calling by Frank Tillapaugh and Richard Hurst

I have been familiar with Frank Tillapaugh and his work at Bear Valley Church in Southeast Denver for quite sometime. Though he has not been the pastor there for over 2 decades now, his legacy there is widely felt. I worked as the youth pastor at Centennial Community Church which was birthed out of Bear Valley as a reclamation project which he briefly mentions at the end of the book.

Frank's work has been profound in the Denver area. And yet his work is really a result of creating what he calls an "open system" which allows people in the church to pursue their God given calling. He truly believes that the Bible really means it when it says that, we are all ministers, that all have been given a gift by the Holy Spirit to use in ministry, and that all beleivers are a royal priesthood. He really believes a pastor is "to prepare God's people for works of service" (Ephesians 4:12).

This belief has caused Frank to take helping people live their callings seriously. As a result the ministries below have come into existence:

Denver Street School (check out the history page)
Mile High Ministries (check out the About Us page
Inner City Health Center
Whiz Kids Tutoring
Project Cure
Alternatives Pregnancy Center

...and many others.

Wow! Isn't it great to see the power of calling? Just think of the impact these ministries have had and continue to have on so many people in Denver! And few people relize that these ministries owe there existence to followers of Jesus being faithful to their calling...to the want-to that God placed inside their hearts.

If you want to get a taste for how this might be accomplished in your church (though it is not a how-to manual) read Calling. I highly recommend this book. If used copies of the book are not available from Amazon, the book is available from Frank's organization Dreamtime listed on this product page.

Emergents, Meet Saints! - Christian History

Here's a great article on studying church history to inform our current wrestlings with church and culture. Here's a great quote from the article and I agree with the author.

The Emergents seem to me to have it right: No single program or rulebook can possibly speak to the hearts of this diversely gifted, diversely perceptive, and diversely wounded young generation who yearn for spiritual fulfillment yet deeply distrust 'organized religion.' We need to reassess—to find new models of creative ministries.

What to do in such a time?

This is a time for stories. Maybe stories from history, 'straight up'—carefully researched and narrated by the scholars who have given their lives to unearthing and interpreting historical evidence and shaping the clearest, most accurate and unbiased story they can out of the shards and shadows of the past. Maybe edifying allegories, plays, and tales of various kinds.

And maybe, too, the life stories of those 'dead Christians' who translated the Gospel for their own generations—forcing the church in their times to shake itself out of deep ruts and see the world in new, challenging lights. Maybe these lives can teach us something about how to translate the Gospel for the lost of our own new patchwork, post-Christian generation.

I like this idea of looking to the past for ideas for future new creative models of ministry. What are your thoughts? Is there anything we can learn from the past to help the church move forward into the future?

The Power of Media: Interview with Micheal Flaherty

Here's an interesting interview with Micheal Flaherty, the president and co-founder of Walden Media which is bringing The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe to the big screen this December. I find the following quote from the interview particularly interesting:

I was thoroughly depressed after Columbine, but I started to get encouraged when I read about how strong some of the young victims' faith was, particularly Cassie Bernall and Rachel Scott. One thing I found interesting was that these kids loved films. Cassie's favorite movie was Braveheart, and I think Rachel's was as well. In contrast, the killers' favorite films were reportedly things like Natural Born Killers.

I decided I would like to find a way to make more great, inspiring films that can lift people up and encourage them, particularly for this age group. So I called my old roommate from college, Cary Granat, who at the time was president of Dimension Films. Cary also wanted to do something more inspirational for the family. So that was the origin of it, acknowledging that media really does have a role in influencing hearts and minds. And finding a way, rather than just to curse the darkness, to light a few candles and get more great films out there.

Particularly interesting to me is Flaherty's acknowledgement that the "media really does have a role in influencing heart and minds." It is refreshing to hear someone in the media say this. It seems to me that whenever concerns are voiced about the media and how it depicts violence, sexuality, religion, etc...that those voices are drowned out by others crying for free speech and seeking to argue that the media does very little to shape people's hearts and minds.

Watching my children grow has only made me more aware of the power of the media to shape hearts and minds. Last night we were reading from Laura and Mr. Edwards a Little House on the Prairie chapter book. In this book, Laura Ingalls describes winter on the prairie and how the girls passed the time. Listen to her description:

Now that winter had arrived on the Kansas prairie, the days were short and very cold. The wind howled and a hard rain fell. But there was no snow. Laura and Mary stayed inside, close by the fire. They listened to the wind and the wet sound of rain as they sewed on their quilts and cut paper dolls from scraps of wrapping paper.

Can you imagine kids today being content doing these things? I know my kids wouldn't be! They have been so shaped by the media that they believe they must always be entertained. Commercials on TV are particularly powerful to a 5 year old! I can sit and watch as their little eyes grow bigger and bigger as their excitement concerning a toy or a snack food increases. Then when the commercial is over they turn to me and say, "I want that! Can we go get that now? Can I have that for my birthday? I want that for Christmas!" The power of the media to shape the heart and mind. I believe it's very real.

What do you think?

Book Review: Provocative Faith by Matthew Paul Turner

Every once in a while you read a book that you needed to read. I needed to read Provocative Faith at this time. From the first page of chapter 1 you know this is not your run of the mill Christian answer book. Right there, in black and white, at the bottom of page 31, Matthew boldly confesses his sin, his struggle with porn. His authenticity and transparency are disarming...and so refreshing.

This book relates Matthew's journey from ordinary, mundane Christian faith to passionate, provocative faith. Matthew challenges the reader to move from the "same ole same ole" faith to a faith that is "centered, stimulating, controversial, challenging, powerful, miraculous, vulnerable, frustrating, and fearful--in a word, provocative" (p. 21).

This book is full of great reminders and insights for all disciples. I am currently examing my call in light of several things that are happening at my two churches. So far, God has been silent. I'm learning to wait patiently as Matthew describes in his chapter "the burning bush isn't for everyone." I'm taking inventory, seeking to "participate in God's dream for (me)" (chapter 10). Is this call where God wants me? Matthew says it well,

If God has given you a dream, and chances are he has, it is imperative that you seek his will on how to make it a reality. Never lose focus on the truth that the dream is a blessing and a gift from Jesus. But in the end, don't you want to hear, "Well done, good and faithful servant"? I want to hear Jesus say to me, "Matthew, you took my dream in you and made it what I wanted it to be; good job!"

I too want to hear those words.

Matthew also reminded me of one way to tune into Jesus and his dream and will for me: meditation.

If you get one thing from this book, let it be this: meditation on Jesus will change your spiritual life. It will rejuvenate your faith like nothing else you will ever experience. More than a great sermon, more than listening to a radio teaching, more than reading this book, meditation on Christ--what he did, who he is, and what he wants of you--will give your life focus, and it will make your faith provocative. And you will begin to know him like never before.

I needed this book at this time. I needed the reminder to be authentic, transparent, and bold. I needed to be reminded to wait on God, that he is good, that he has a dream for me to achieve which he has uniquely gifted me for, and that he will share with me what it is if I'll just sit still, shut up, and listen.

Thanks to Paige Harvey of PS Media Relations for sending me a copy of this book to review! Paige, your sending me this book really ministered to me! Grace and peace!

To Conserve Gas, President Calls for Less Driving - New York Times

A qoute from the article:

Mr. Bush's comments, while similar to remarks he made shortly after the disruption from Hurricane Katrina pushed gasoline prices sharply higher, were particularly notable because the administration has long emphasized new production over conservation. It has also opted not to impose higher mileage standards on automakers.

In 2001, Vice President Dick Cheney said, 'Conservation may be a sign of personal virtue, but it cannot be the basis of a sound energy policy.' Also that year, Ari Fleischer, then Mr. Bush's press secretary, responded to a question about reducing American energy consumption by saying 'that's a big no.'

'The president believes that it's an American way of life,' Mr. Fleischer said.

It finally appears that conservation is on the President's radar! Yet, what will truly cause people to conserve is the expense and not a plea from the government. Could it be that the American way of life is wrong? What do you think?

Jesus Isn't Cool: Challenging Youth Ministry

Here is a fantastic article for all youth ministers to read! I know as a former youth minister I really struggled with the concepts in this article.

Religion may help teens find a sense of purpose, stay focused on schoolwork, avoid drugs, drive responsibly, and so on. These are good and important things and they are all part of the 'religious package,' but they are not the point. They are like the paper bag you get for free if you buy the groceries.

Sadly, so much of our ministry to youth (and adults!) can be summed up in trite t-shirt slogans. How far does the t-shirt slogan religion take a person?

After a particularly difficult night, I shared my struggles with a young woman interested in becoming a youth minister. "I'm not sure you want to get into this," I said. "There are other things you could do." She sat in a moment of stunned silence. Then she told me about her college years.

"My faith was no match for college," she said. "Youth group was fun, but no one taught me anything." She recalled those years marked by drugs, broken relationships, an eating disorder, sex, pregnancy and eventually abortion. Finally, with tear-filled eyes, she said, "Don't you see? If I had grown up in a youth group like yours, I would have had a fighting chance."

Christianity boiled down to a t-shirt slogan, no matter how cool or stylish will ever give our youth a fighting chance.

Suddenly Single

This article reminded me of our friend Mel West (she's wearing the cowboy hat in the picture) who is walking the suddenly single road after her husband Ken died last year following a long, painful battle with cancer. We love you Mel and are praying for you!

'In most cases you’re dealing with the loss of someone close,' Grissom says. And whether or not it’s expected, the person is still going through a deep grieving process.

He says that when there’s a death, 'there’s an enormous amount of support around the funeral and maybe for a couple of weeks afterward, but then everyone around starts to resume their lives in a normal fashion; yet the person in grief is still trying to rebuild his or her life.'

LeadershipJournal.net - P*rn Sund*y

October 9 is National Porn Sunday. Below are some sobering statistics:

Every day, nearly 40 million people visit one or more of 4.2 million porn sites the internet. At $6.2 billion yearly, porn revenue exceeds the combined revenues of ABC, NBC, and CBS. According to statistics at XXXchurch.com, nearly 50 percent of Christians say that pornography is a major problem in the home.

Check out these links for help in dealing with addiction to pornography:

Porn Sunday
XXXChurch.com
Help for Porn Addicts
Covenant Eyes

Book Review: Intercessory Prayer: How God Can Use Your Prayers to Move Heaven and Earth

I really wanted to like this book! This book was handed to me by a true prayer warrior, a woman in one of my churches that really spends serious time in prayer. I had great hopes for this book because of this.

However, I am really disappointed with this book. I found Sheets' style to be inauthentic and "preachy." It didn't feel real or vulnerable to me. Nearly every anecdote that is shared about prayer is miraculous and incredible in some way. Never is there a serious wrestling with unanswered prayer. Overall, if your prayers go unanswered it feels that Sheets' answer for you is that you are doing it wrong.

Sheets' also demonstrates an overall ignorance of biblical Greek and Hebrew. The only scholarly works cited are lexicons and concordances and not a single biblical commentary is mentioned for any passage he discusses. Sheets' does know his way around a Greek or Hebrew lexicon and Webster's Dictionary. Unfortunately this leads him down the path of many Exegetical Fallacies.

The most common fallacy of Sheets' is defined by D.A. Carson as "unwarranted adoption of an expanded semantic field." The following is what Carson means:

The fallacy in this instance lies in the supposition that the meaning of a word in a specific context is much broader than the context itself allows and may bring with it the word's entire semantic range. Exegetical Fallacies, p. 60.

Sheets' regularly brings to bear the word's entire semantic range even if the context does not allow this.

Another fallacy Sheets' falls into is "semantic anachronism".

This fallacy occurs when a late use of a word is read back into earlier literature. At the simplest level, it occurs within the same language, as when the Greek early church fathers use a word in a manner not demonstrably envisaged by the New Testament writers...But the problem has a second face when we also add a change of language. Our word dynamite is etymologically derived from dynamis (power, or even miracle). I do not know how many times I have heard preachers offer some such rendering of Romans 1:16 as this: "I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the dynamite of God unto salvation for everyone who believes" -- often with a knowing tilt of the head, as if something profound or even esoteric has been uttered. This is not just the old root fallacy revisited. It is worse: it is an appeal to a kind of reverse etymology, the root fallacy compounded by anachronism. Did Paul think of dynamite when he penned this word? Exegetical Fallacies, pp. 33-34

He probably didn't, seeing that dynamite had not yet been invented!
But here is another pastor committing this same fallacy! Sheets on pages 169-170 says,

On the other hand, we have weapons that are "divinely powerful" to pull down strongholds, if we would only realize it...The word "powerful" is dunatos and is actually one of the New Testament words for a miracle...And, of course, this is the Greek word from which we get the word dynamite. This stuff is explosive!

This dynamite is explosive for the "destruction of fortresses"...

Sadly and obviously these are not the word pictures the New Testament writers had in mind as they had no experience or understanding of dynamite.

I'll let Carson have the last word, as I believe many popular level books consumed by Christians are full of these "word-study fallacies":

But as important as word studies are, it is very doubtful if profound understanding of any text or of any theme is really possible by word studies alone.

Perhaps the principal reason why word studies constitute a particularly rich source for exegetical fallacies is that many preachers and Bible teachers know Greek only well enough to use concordances, or perhaps a little more. There is little feel for Greek as a language; and so there is a temptation to display what has been learned in study, which as often as not is a great deal of lexical information without the restraining influence of context. The solution, of course, is to learn more Greek, not less, and to gain at least a rudimentary knowledge of linguistics. Exegetical Fallacies, p. 64

resettle.org

Here's another group trying to help the victims of hurricane Katrina.

A realistic and holistic solution for the victims of hurricane Katrina

Our Mission: To mobilize every community of 10,000 people within 1000 miles of the gulf coast to provide for the temporary resettlement of up to 10 families.

I have been reading about the aftermath of hurricane Katrina today online. This article at the Ooze by Jim Henderson is a difficult one for me to process. Yes, I believe that institutional racism exists and keeps people down. Yes, it is possible that the federal government's slow response was in part due to racism in our nation. But I struggle with the desire to reduce this catastrophe to one cause, namely racism.

One of the TV news shows the other night discussed other very possible catastrophes. These catastrophes included an influenza pandemic, a dirty bomb being denoted in New York city, and an earthquake in San Francisco. The overwhelming reality for all of these potential crises is that we are not prepared. We are not the masters of our world that we like to think we are. And each of these crises are color blind.

If any one of these other catastrophes hit us (actually more like when, since all experts agree it is only a matter of time until the big one hits San Francisco), which will come with no warning like hurricane Katrina, we will be caught flat-footed, scratching our heads, wondering how this could happen to Americans. And many of our nations poorest, the elderly, and the sick will suffer the most.

Sadly so many didn't leave the gulf coast. Sadly, many couldn't leave the gulf coast. Sadly, local, state, and federal officials did not prepare for the worse case scenario. Sadly, local officials did not use 100's of buses that ended up under flood waters to evacuate the poor.

And sadly, we aren't prepared for the worse case scenario in San Francisco, New York, or any number of other cities either. Makes you want to live out in the sticks doesn't it!

Out in the sticks

I've just looked at my blog in Internet Explorer for the first time in I don't know how long. I've been using Firefox as my primary browser for a year or so. One question...does my blog look really weird in IE? The sidebar seems to be misplaced when I look at it.

Thanks for the input!

Steve

Brad Stine - Comedy - Arts - John Leland - New York Times

Here's an interesting article about Brad Stine a Christian stand-up comic.

In the competitive world of stand-up comedians, Mr. Stine, 45, has found a niche as a conservative Christian, riffing on topics like gay marriage, judicial activism and judges who cite precedents from foreign courts. If this seems like an unlikely route to the "Tonight" show, it has its rewards. After years in secular comedy clubs, where he made up to $1,500 a week, he now performs at basketball arenas and football stadiums for gatherings of the Promise Keepers, a ministry aimed at men. For less than an hour onstage, he earns $20,000.

$20,000 for one Promise Keepers gig! Wow! I should have been a comedian!

The Making of the Christian - Christianity Today Magazine

Dallas Willard and Richard Foster are two of my heroes (though I believe they would hate being called that!). Recently Willard and Foster along with Eugene Peterson and Walter Brueggeman teamed up to edit The Renovaré Spiritual Formation Bible. I'm usually not one for niche Bibles. But I don't think this Bible should be understood in that way. Here's a great quote by Dallas Willard from the first part of the interview which is here. Part two here.

What sometimes goes on in all sorts of Christian institutions is not formation of people in the character of Christ; it's teaching of outward conformity. You don't get in trouble for not having the character of Christ, but you do if you don't obey the laws.

It is so important to understand that character formation is not behavior modification. Lots of people misunderstand it and put it in the category of Alcoholics Anonymous. But in spiritual formation, we're not talking about behavior modification.

Better Together, an initiative of the Saguaro Seminar: Civic Engagement in America, Kennedy School of Government

This looks like an interesting website. I found it through a link in the Sojourners enewsletter which is a sermon by Yonce Shelton called "Still Bowling Alone?". The premise of the website is found in this quote:

The Saguaro Seminar issued the report Better Together, in December of 2000, calling for a nationwide campaign to redirect a downward spiral of civic apathy. Warning that the national stockpile of "social capital" --- our reserve of personal bonds and fellowship -- is seriously depleted, the report outlined the framework for sustained, broad-based social change to restore America's civic virtue.

I hope to explore this website more in the future. I think the collapse of American community is a fascinating subject. I would also say that it isn't just American community that has collapsed. My experience is that community in our churches has collapsed as well. How do we reestablish community in our churches which appears to currently be a counter cultural idea?