The American Spectator:
"The real kudos however belong to Tina Turner, Rene Russo, Ben Stein, and Evan Holyfield, and others who for years publicly professed their faith before it became Major Box Office. Likewise for billionaire John Templeton. And,top model Thom Fleming, who, with other young, bold-face names, was attending weekly Bible Study sessions on New York's Upper West Side before it was cool to be reverent."

Yikes! Now Hollywood is going to jump on the bandwagon. It's going to be cool to make religious movies and talk about your faith.

In my younger days, I would have thought, "Cool!' Now I cringe. Another day, another formula, another dollar.

Weblog: Passion Provokes Neo-Nazi Confession - Christianity Today Magazine:
"Norwegian killer confesses to bombings after viewing The Passion"

Sounds like the movie is having a profound affect on many people!

This is an excellent interview with Tony Jones on the state of youth ministry. Jordan Cooper posted much of it on his blog.

Leisure Pursuits of Today's Young Man:

"The television industry was shaken last October when the ratings from Nielsen Media Research showed that a huge part of a highly prized slice of the American population was watching less television. As the fall TV season began, viewership among men from 18 to 34 fell 12 percent compared with the year before, Nielsen reported. And for the youngest group of adult men, those 18 to 24, the decline was a steeper 20 percent."

Yet another sign of a significant cultural shift underway.

Back from Texas! So nice to be back in Wray. We had a great time in Dallas with friends, Brownsville with family, and South Padre on the beach with our kids. My wife got to say her goodbye to her grandad. Fortunately he remembered her even with his advanced Alzheimer's. My wife and I had some wonderful talks on the long drive and I learned many a good thing from Sacred Marriage. I'll be blogging about it in the coming week so stay tuned!

We leave for Brownsville Texas tomorrow. My wife's grandfather is very ill. I probably won't be able to write at all while we are away. Grace and peace.

First, we planned a two-part sermon series, "Understanding the Passion," to bookend both sides of the movie's release. Next, we booked 47 theater screens for members to take their lost friends to. Third, Kay and I personally invited over a thousand lost community leaders of Orange County to a VIP premiere showing, including every mayor, congressman, superintendent of schools, other community leaders, and four billionaires, most of whom I'd never met. Then, in anticipation of all the lost friends brought by members, we added two more services to our regular weekend schedule of nine. Finally, we prepared a three-week small group curriculum on The Passion for follow-up.

The results? Over 600 unchurched community leaders attended our VIP showing; 892 friends of members were saved during the two-week sermon series. Over 600 new small groups were formed, and our average attendance increased by 3,000. That's catching a wave!

No doubt, some will defend their failure to use this moment and this incredible tool for Christ with personal, theological, or philosophical defenses. Some churches would rather be cool, hip, or cutting-edge, than reach more people for Christ. To those I would ask, What matters most? Where's the fruit? Many young pastors would be shocked to learn that the largest Gen-X church in America is Saddleback with over 20,000 names under 29 on our church roll.-Rick Warren, from Catching The Passion Wave on ChristianityToday.com

Jesus didn't say it was by our clever outlines, memorable mnemonics, snazzy programs, and special effects that we would be known as his disciples, or that he would be known as sent from God. Rather, he said, it was by our love that we and he would be known, and by our fruit: our good works that shine in darkness and inspire all to glorify God. -Brian McLaren, from Passionate, but Not for Mel's Movie

Do these guys know that they don't even speak the same language? It's clear that Warren sees emerging worship as trying to be cool, hip, and cutting-edge. And I fear that sometimes that is what it looks like. Like all "movements" what people see is the external programatic elements (i.e. the Emergent Conference) last week.

Following the event via blogs, it did feel gimicky. It did feel like we are trying to be hip, cool, cutting-edge. But what if we are not trying to be any of that? What if we are trying to be authentic? what if we are trying to express ourselves in meaningful and powerful ways that are true to who God has made us?

We must be kind, in this discussion. The authentic mode of operation for moderns is formulaic program. Saddleback and Rick Warren are doing what comes naturally to them. Great! May God bless them.

The authentic mode of operation for many postmoderns is relationship. We seek to love people into the Kingdom not program them into it. Obviously these are not mutually exclusive. But programs and relationships are always in tension in the church. And this discussion between McLaren and Warren highlights that tension.

As a pastor, I am handed many books to read. I have recently decided to try to read every one that is handed to me. The first one I read was The DaVinci Code. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I am planning on presenting a one day seminar at the church about the book and the historical reliability of the New Testament.

I was also handed Shattering Your Strongholds. I do not like this book at all! I have skimmed the book and found very little in it that is worthwhile.

I am glad that I have read it so I can give my honest opinion to the person who gave it to me.

I am studying Luke 15:1-3; 11-32, the Parable of the Prodigal Son for my sermon on March 28. Once again it is a powerful example of experiential storytelling.

"…this narrative presents neither son as a model uniformly to be followed or avoided. God delights in the repentance of prodigals, but he would prefer that they not have to sink so low before coming to their senses. God cherishes the faithfulness of those who obey his will but does not want them to despise the rebellious who have repented. The parable is strikingly open-ended. Did the older brother come in the house and join the festivities? Jesus does not say, and it misreads the parable to attempt to answer the question. The important fact is that the invitation remains for all who hear or read and are willing to respond and rejoice." Interpreting the Parables, Blomberg, pp. 178-179.

Jesus leaves it open ended so that we enter the story and answer the question ourselves. What a powerful story.

Wired News: Don't Trash It, Tote It

"...she decided to see if she could create jobs for the poor and help the environment at the same time in a developing country where recycling is virtually nonexistent and garbage poses a serious health threat.
For now, her line of trash products consists mainly of bags, wallets and pencil cases made from the brightly colored soft plastic pouches that once contained beverages, fabric softener, detergent and soap. The project is adding backpacks, lunch boxes and computer cases made from empty toothpaste tubes.
Retail prices start at $1.20 and go up to $10, barely covering production costs, Wizer says. She pays scavengers about $1.50 per kilogram of trash, about six times what they can earn at the garbage dumps that dot Jakarta's surroundings.
A middleman takes a big cut but provides the scavengers free housing in tiny, squalid shacks sandwiched between a posh hotel and the elite international school in South Jakarta.
'I want to inject some money into this desperately poor segment of society,' Wizer says. 'I want them to be able to send their kids to school so that they won't have to scavenge.'"

Powerful idea for helping people and the environment. Okay church, let's think of cool things to do like this!

I am feeling rather discouraged today. Sundays are busy days in a rural two church pastorate. I preach at the Presbyterian Church at 9:30am and then the Christian Church at 11:00am. Following the Christian Church service, we finished up our Baptism/Confirmation/Pastor's class. I went home for an hour and then returned to the Christian Church for youth group. Three girls showed up.

I am discouraged because I don't know what to do when three girls show up for youth group. I used to work with large youth groups in the suburbs. We had a fun time sitting and talking, but I want to do so much more for these kids out here.

I know there are many youth in this town that do not go to church. But it seems like there is little chance of attracting them to the church. After reading Mark Miller's book Experiential Storytelling I have felt greatly challenged to create experience for the youth out here to enter into the story of Jesus and the church. The hardest thing now days is drawing a crowd to come.

I am hoping to start a worship experience for younger people in our community this summer. Maybe this will create the momentum that we need.

MSNBC - The Afflictions Of Affluence:
"affluence's afflictions endure and remind us of an eternal truth: it matters, as individuals and as a society, not just how much wealth we have but how well we use it." Amen.

Joseph Baretti Quotes - The Quotations Page:

I hate mankind, for I think myself one of the best of them, and I know how bad I am.
-Joseph Baretti, quoted in Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson

A great quote to keep in mind for all of us! Reminds me of the Apostle Paul: "I am the chief of sinners." (Something to that effect!)

Death Toll in Madrid Train Attacks Rises to 200
Another terrible story.

The evening news makes it impossible to deal with the problem of evil in abstractions. The problem of evil faces us every day and night in every form of the media. So how do we answer this age old problem?

Greg Boyd's thinking and writing on this subject is really intriguing to me. I don't know if I have truly become an open theist (I am pastoring a Presbyterian Church, though I am ordained in the Christian Church Disciples of Christ) but I am definitely leaning toward this theological understanding.

I am still reading through and wrestling with Boyd's book God at War. It is a challenging read.

Nine People Found Dead in Fresno Home
This is a terrible story.

This is cool new software thatI learned about on Jordan Cooper's website! I am looking forward to using this software to blog more effectively and quickly.

Farmhands can be gadget geeks, too.
It's nice to see tractors getting technology props! My grandpa's brothers actually invented the Steiger tractor.

This city boy has been amazed at the amount of technology regularly used out in the sticks.

The Corner: Movie Studio Notes On Passion (from the New Yorker)
Very funny!

There Is No Now: An Existential Crisis @ e-Church.com
Very cool article over at e-church. Ever since I studied astronomy in college and had my mind blown by the possible implications of Eintein's theory of relativity, I have been fascinated by these discussions.

These theories are fascinating and may have incredible consequences for our understanding of God and what is considered supernatural.

In college and while reading Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time, I began to postulate that there is the scientific possiblity for a being to exist everwhere all the time both in the past, the present, and the future. The thought occured to me that we are always in motion. If we are not moving ourselves, then we live on a planet which is moving, and a galaxy that is moving.

So maybe to be everywhere all the time both in the past, the present, and the future means to be at rest. Perhaps God is stationary, at rest. To be at rest in a moving universe would give you quite a different prespective on what is going on in that universe.

Furthermore, it would affect how you understand "now" as the article on e-church points out. For a being entirely at rest, what would time be like or the perception of time be like? Is it possible that every moment in time could be defined by this being at rest as "now"?

Perhaps, a being at rest would also be able to experience different dimensions to our universe. If this is the case than what appears supernatural to us is actually child's play to the other being.

"Let us consider a 2-D world. To jail a criminal in such a world a circular boundary would have to be placed around the criminal. To extricate the criminal, all a 3-D creature has to do is to peel him off the 2-D world, and redeposit him elsewhere on his world. This feat, which is quite ordinary in 3-D, appears fantastic in 2-D. No one in the 2-D world understands what the up direction means. The internal organs of a 2-D creature would be visible to us. It would be trivial to reach inside a 2-D creature and perform surgery without cutting the skin. Viewing this 2-D flatland, notice that we are omnipotent. The 2-D creature cannot hide from us. He would see us as having magical powers." For more go here.

Well, time to change gears and focus my attention on Luke 13:1-9 for this week's sermon.

This is an incredible book on marriage. Definitely one of if not the best I have ever read! It is refreshing to read a book that doesn't seek to have answers (i.e. 5 ways to have a great marriage) but rather wrestles with the bigger picture of marriage and how it helps shape us as disciples. Here's a great quote:
"Christianity involves believing certain things, to be sure, but its herald, its hallmark, its glory is not in merely ascribing to certain intellectual truths. The beauty of Christianity is in learning to love, and few life situations test that so radically as does a marriage.
Yes, it is difficult to love your spouse. But if you truly want to love God, look right now at the ring on your left hand, commit yourself to exploring anew what that ring represents, and love passionately, crazily, enduringly the fleshly person who put it there.
It just may be one of the most spiritual things you can do."