Missional Living

Over at TheResurgence, the audio and video is up from Seattle’s Text and Context conference. So far, I’ve only been able to watch Matt Chandler’s session titled "Preaching The Gospel From The Center of the Evangelical World". WELL worth the time.

As Chandler talks about the effects of pluralism in ministry as we deal with Evangelicals (the ‘big brother’), the de-churched (children of fundamentalism), and emergents. Several gems there.

One of the things that jumped out at me, especially in light of this recent post, was this:

"As a result we have [fundamentalists/theologians who've studied the details of scripture] with big heads and no hearts."

We put Scripture, often out of the context in which it is written, under a microscope, dissect it, display it, and propogate it. It seems we exist to give a prescription of  a neverending "to do"  list in order to follow Christ, but no "why".

And the ‘why’ is important to even my 4-year-old.

Watch and/or listen here.

If you’ve followed me on Twitter lately, you know I’m just about sick of hospitals. As things are getting back to normal, I’m finally able to get back to some reading and blogging.

To start things off, check out this blog on Why I Don’t Do Gas Buy-Downs. How does this shape what we do to reach people for Christ in our suburban life? Jonathan has some very thought through ideas on why it’s really just cheap advertisement for the church (his words) and downright silly (mine). Events like these, IMO, don’t do anything to develop relationships or redeem the culture…

Thoughts?

Thanks, Steve!

Since I was a freshmen in high school, I’ve loved Dan Fogelberg. (No, it wasn’t ALL hair metal…). Same Old Lang Syne and The Leader of the Band weren’t just songs on the radio–they were experiences. And years later, they still take me back to that freeze-frame moment they created. In fact, I’m a sap: I only listen to Lang Syne at certain times because the place it takes me to is almost sacred.

Fogelberg, 56, died today after an almost 4 year bout with prostate cancer.  Our thoughts and prayers go out to his wife, Jean, and his famly and friends. A guy I would have loved to have known better, he loved the tonal qualities and subtle range of the acoustic guitar. He loved to laugh and abuse the English language. He loved rock and roll. He always thought he’d quit the music business..but never the music. He was blessed with the never-ending gift/curse of music. And wasn’t cool enough for MTV. And he defined success as having just one person listen to his work and say, "Wow! Thanks for writing that!"

"we tried to reach beyond the emptiness, but neither one knew how…"

Wow! Thanks for writing that.

Here’s a live video to take us back.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhjYbfK9vrk[/youtube]

It’s the story of a mother who gave birth to a son. And the son who holds the fate of the world in his hands.

Her name is Sarah. Not Mary.

I gotta admit, there’s only about two shows on television I watch with any commitment, so when the announcement came that my one-of-two favorite shows, Heroes, would NOT be aired beginning in January, I fell into a panic.

But God is good. FOX announced the upcoming Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

 After viewing several trailers online, you’ll see why this one is my favorite.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=961KgU2azcQ[/youtube]

If you want more of the plotline, watch this.

As you know, we were already supposed to change over our collective clocks this past Sunday, but Big Brother decided that we needed an extra couple of weeks of Daylight Savings Time. But it goes further.

TreeHugger Labs ran the numbers and has determined that If DST runs half the year for an hour a day, that is fully 1/48th of our total exposure to the sun that could be eliminated with the cancelling of Daylight Saving Time, almost 2% of solar heat gain annually.

That’s huge!

Read the whole article here.

Of course, you’ve seen the picture of Pope John Paul II as appeared in the fire.

Evidently it’s been crashing some religious websites from all the hits…

Perhaps it wasn’t JP after all. Maybe it was actually Johnny Storm…

But that’s just me. Either way…

‘Flame on!’

Over at The Refinery, there’s, hopefully, a great discussion brewing on the video below. It’s Unkle’s Rabbit in Your Headlights vid (sung by Thom York of Radiohead). It’s a little disturbing to watch, but the payoff at the end is fantastic.

If you’re familiar at all with Thom Yorke, or Radiohead in general, you know that he is an immaculate artist you must acclimate to. You don’t jump off the bridge and immediately find yourself scuba diving in the ocean depths without a careful, deliberate descent. And not without acquiring a taste and appreciation for the depths in which he swims.

Watch the video.

Then go HERE to get in on the discussion. You’ll be surprised, I think, to find yourself shedding the things that harm us most….

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=Z3ClCwcCvdQ[/youtube]

…and neither is tacky.

According to this article at Luxlist, our buddy Lil Jon has caught the attention of the Guiness Book of World Records with his 'Crunk Ain't Dead' diamond necklace.

"The Guinness Book of World Records has officially certified it as the largest diamond pendant ever. The "Crunk Aint Dead" pendant is 7.5 inches tall, six inches wide and weighs almost 12 pounds. This is some bitty bling, 73 carats of diamonds on the necklace but 3,756 round-cut white diamonds total set in 18K yellow and white gold. It is valued at around $500,000." 

How do you spell 'bling' these days? L-I-L–J-O-N. 

Someone had to go and do it.

Someone had to steal the creativity of YouTube and baptize it in the waters of contemporary Christianity. Instead of the 'Broadcast Yourself' tagline of YouTube.com, GodTube encourages you to 'Broadcast Him'. Don't misunderstand me, I'm all for a place that supports a community of homemade Christian videos (however lame they may be), but once again, we've produced yet another less-than-stellar approach of the Christian Community copying something from someone else and hoping to make a splash. My question is this: Why didn't we come up with this first? Why do we as Christians (and as The Church) have to play second string when it comes to much of anything creative or artistic. Why settle for being the 'alternative'? Shouldn't we have the character and integrity to produce quality art and creative communication…even to the point that multi-million dollar companies look to us and want to reproduce what we've done…not the other way around? 

Alas, maybe I'm cynical. 

Just watch this video and see if you don't agree.  

(Of course, this one of the youth camp slingshot is hilarious! Maybe we can pull that off at Camp 7.8 this year….) 

*EDIT: OK….I'll probably regret this later, but if you're STILL not convicnced…check out the new ShoutLife.com, the Christian alternative to MySpace….[sigh]….But don't worry, I don't expect it to be around for long.  

"IF you're going to win the world for Christ, you're going to have to sit in the smoking section." -Neil Cole

Good quote from the guy whom I'm going to get to have lunch with tomorrow. Check out his latest book Organic Church: Growing Faith Where Life Happens. I'll be picking his brain (along with a few other guys) while wondering if he'd autograph my 100th Anniversary Harley Davidson Zippo…