The Education of Shelby Knox

The Education of Shelby Knox
Originally uploaded by hawkenstein.

I caught this documentary last night. It is excellent and raises many interesting issues. If you get a chance, check it out!

Emegergent Church: Filled with creative, energetic potential

Here's a quote from a great article by Alan Roxburgh on the emerging church.

At their best, these younger leaders want to challenge the North American church to a conversation about faith and mission in the midst of what they deem a postmodern transition. They want to engage in conversation about the philosophical, theological, methodological, and cultural challenges we face in our fast-changing world. At their worst, they become a new form of seeker-driven churches which use art, music, the digital revolution and the aesthetic pastiche of the moment to create new experiences.

At their best they courageously and joyfully enter the worlds of Goths and tattoo parlors to form Christian life in, with, beside and for people who would never be welcome in most congregations. At their worst they become the purveyors of more experiential, artsy, aesthetic forms of religious goods and services.

TheBolgBlog: D. A. Carson: Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church

Some good thoughts on Carson's book by Ryan Bolger a professor at Fuller.

Monday Morning Insight Weblog: Using Mind Maps to Enhance Preaching

I've been using mind maps in my preaching and teaching for about half a year or so. I use software called Mindmanager and love it! It has revolutionized my preaching, teaching, and organization. To learn more about the use of mind maps read the Mindjet blog.

buzztracker

This website maps the news.

liveplasma

Check this out. Very cool!

Liveplasma is a new way to broaden your cultural horizons according to your taste in music and movies.

Look for your favorite bands, movies or directors to obtain a map that details other potential interests.

ExChristianDotNet - encouraging ex-Christians Ex Christian Ex-Christian Xtian ExTian ExChristian

Here's a sobering and sad site.

Monday Morning Insight Weblog: Bill Gates on Church Attendance

Here's a quote by Bill Gates on religion in Time magazine:

Just in terms of allocation of time resources, religion is not very efficient. There's a lot more I could be doing on a Sunday morning.

Bill is absolutely right. Religion is not very efficient. It never has been and never will be. Efficiency is not the goal of religion. Efficiency is not the goal of a Sunday morning worship service (at least it shouldn't be!). To focus on efficiency or relevancy or any other thing besides God is to move away from the heart of worship.

I know that our society has gotten further and further from this concept but when Yahweh originally created Sabbath (which most Christians observe on Sunday, in theory) the goal was to move us from a mindset of production (efficiency) to rest (inefficiency).

Sadly, Gates and so many others don't see why religion is worth their time. What is worth Bill's time? What is worth our time? Is worshipping God worth our time despite how irrelevant and mundane it may be?

My two churches are far from being relevant to most in our town. We are far from being professional let alone great in our worship. We struggle to sing hymns with any real musicality. Our services are not powerful experiences were people leave knowing they have experienced God's presence. Yet we come together. We worship. At least we try. And I hope that is worth our time.

What's your theological worldview? Now that's surprising!

Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 79% Emergent/Postmodern 71% Neo orthodox 71% Roman Catholic 64% Charismatic/Pentecostal 57% Modern Liberal 54% Reformed Evangelical 50% Classical Liberal 43% Fundamentalist 14% What's your theological worldview? created with QuizFarm.com

Thanks to Darrell for the link.

No Wonder Emergent is Threatening to Evangelicalism!

Critical of the emergent church discussion? Maybe this will point out why.

Theoblogy: Official Response to Critics of Emergent

If you are critical of the emergent church discussion, please take the time to read this official response.

Jerry Rice

JERRY RICE
Originally uploaded by hawkenstein.

The G.O.A.T. is now playing for the Broncos. I think this is a great move as the veteran will bring a lot of knowledge and experience to share with the young receivers of the Broncos.

He'll also help them out in the red zone where the Broncos struggled last year.

Doubt: A History

Doubt: A History
Originally uploaded by hawkenstein.

This sounds like a fascinating program and book. There's also a quiz by the author. Here are some interesting quotes from the Speaking of Faith newsletter.

We examine the contribution of skeptics, cynics, and others who have followed the human impulse to challenge given wisdom, and to doubt. Poet and historian Jennifer Michael Hecht has published a sweeping, lyrical history of the world's great doubters, and she shows that the act of questioning, as much as the act of believing, has changed the world.

The joy of creating this program lies, in part, in having my own imagination about "faith" expanded. This week, Jennifer Michael Hecht provides a luminous account of how our common imagination about doubt, and its symbiotic relationship with faith, begs for investigation.

Hecht's subject matter, the history of doubt, is daunting. She defines doubt generously, broadly addressing the human impulse to question what is given in order to invest one's days with meaning. She counts Socrates and Jesus, Thomas Jefferson and Emily Dickinson, among history's great doubters. She loves the ideas her work examines, and recounts their origins and the individuals who championed them as though she is recalling the adventures of friends:

You have to be a little bold and a little brave in most periods of time to be a doubter. And I liked them. I also was surprised by them because the dominant history basically suggests that doubt is very modern and that we have few doubters in the ancient world, but I kept seeing it everywhere. And so I just wanted to tell that story, to sketch it out. I found it was much more cohesive and self-knowing than I had ever dreamed.

How many Christians would acknowledge that there is a symbiotic relationship between faith and doubt?

TallSkinnyKiwi: The Emergent Heresy Test

Go take the emergent heresy test! Also check out the results.

Another great quote from Dr. Fernando's article

According to the famous evangelist John Wesley, you have a healthy job when there is a certain percentage of things you like to do, a percentage of things you don’t mind doing and a percentage of things you don’t like to do at all – but you choose to do them anyway!

This is excellent advice for all of us young pastors who want to work our way out of all the "have to's" of ministry.

Panda's Ponderings [Out of this World Dutchman]: Ajith Fernando: Servant Leadership

Tertullian wrote, 'It is our care for the helpless, our practice of loving-kindness, that brands us in the eyes of many of our opponents. 'Only look,' they say, 'how they love one another.'

The Body grows not only through preaching but through kindness in and outside the church. So this is a leader’s role: foster a joyful and patient community where people tolerate each other and are kind to each other.

This is a powerful article by a wonderful disciple and scholar. I thoroughly enjoyed his commentary on Acts and find these thoughts especially challenging as a pastor. The quote above is what I am finding to be the number 1 challenge of pastoring in a small town. The lack of joyful, patient community is destroying so many small churches.

Tornado warning

Tornado warning
Originally uploaded by hawkenstein.

Wray is in the center of that big red spot on the radar! We are under a severe tornado warning this evening!

Megachurch google sightseeing: First Presbyterian Church

First Pres Colorado Springs
Originally uploaded by hawkenstein.

This is First Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Here's a little from their website:

Welcome to First Presbyterian Church located downtown at the corner of Nevada and Bijou Streets in the heart of Colorado Springs.

Our Church is committed to being more than the geographic heart of the city. We want to be Christ’s heart as well.

Since the founding of the Church in 1872, God has blessed this congregation with the presence of His Holy Spirit and has called this congregation to serve Him in a unique way—challenging us to provide a Christ-centered, biblically energized witness to Colorado Springs and the surrounding area.

An abundance of people-oriented ministries and programs are provided here to meet human need in whatever form it takes.

Whatever your age or circumstance in life, we have a place for you in the family of God at First Presbyterian Church.

The doors of our Church and the doors of our hearts are open to you.

Brian McLaren: A Brotherly Critique and Response to "A Generous Orthodoxy"

Here's a great but brief discussion concerening "A Generous Orthodoxy". One thing I greatly admire in the emerging church movement is the willingness and desire to dialogue about issues. Too often in the church we are tempted to say "my way or the highway" without allowing people to process the issues openly and honestly.

4 Ways Blogging Can Change Your Church

This is an idea I have had for some time:

Blogging will help to develop sermons and classes
Now, a preacher will be able to post a sermon idea at the beginning of the week and have the congregation respond so that when he delivers the sermon he will have brought many along for the ride. They will be actively engaged in the process and be able to share ideas and thoughts. Soon a preacher that does not blog with his congregation will be out of touch and behind the pack. Just note: blogging will change how preaching is done!

I would love to experiment with this. Sadly most of my congregation doesn't know what a blog is! Would any of you enjoy participating in something like this?