This Sunday’s message on “belief” has caused me to reminisce about a time when I lost my faith and how it has returned, only deeper, in the past decade + . In retrospect, it was epistemological relativity that killed me and I had a hard time finding anywhere to plant my feet. It was a severe feeling of displacement, knowing that everything I believed was just a product of my upbringing. But somehow faith came back to me and that’s another story I’ll tell only if asked. But I’m not here to argue or convince anybody as much as I am sincerely interested in this journey called “belief”. It will help broaden the perspective of my sermon and perhaps open up some stimulating dialogue. And so I ask,
Have you ever gone through a crisis of faith?
The market is flooded w/ religious bloggers, of which I am complicit.
So just had a great convo w/ Ron Pai and the RCC staff about technology in the church and how it’s revolutionizing Christendom, much like the Gutenberg press had done centuries before. I mean, think about it; other than business folks and scholars, who uses technology more than the Church? Blogging, twitter, skype, you name it, religious technophiles comprise an important and large segment of the technosphere. Enter the idea of “statewhores” or in more accurate parlance, “stathoe’s” (did I spell that right?) who are basically in it just to get noticed, trying to rack up stats on their websites. But isn’t that what the game’s about? Getting noticed? Read more…
There are two major, formative events happening in my life right now. I became a father 16 mos ago (and going for a repeat this upcoming May) and my parents are getting old (dad turns 70 this yr). And so understandably so, family has been forefront in my mind as of late, particularly, what is the so-called Christian vision of family? A few tantalizing thoughts from Read more…
What does worship look like in the emerging church?
In deconstructing everything ecclesiological, does the emerging church discard, re-embrace, or presume to re-define our historical heritage in Christian worship? I personally tire of the repetitive choruses not because the words are bad, but because good words have been drained of meaning through over-usage. Thus is the worship music of the past few decades. So I wonder what the response of the ever-emerging church is today? Do we amp up the volume even more in an effort to compensate for our mediocrity as John Stackhouse asserts, (in a great article btw), or have we not found that “new song” just yet?
How is your (emerging) church re-inventing, re-defining, or returning to our historical heritage of worship in the church?
Continuing previous thoughts about pastors and depression. I’d like to introduce another important and related dimension; Sabbath. What do u guys think? Is Sabbath related to keeping depression @ bay? My talk last Sunday on the subject resonated w/folks but I find myself still wrestling: Is Sabbath really about a 24-hr period per se? What day should it be then? And is not Sabbath (in a sense) re-defined, maybe even re-voked in the NT??? At any rate, Read more…
The small town of Tulia, Texas will unfortunately be back in the spotlights soon in infamy – what with the upcoming 10-yr anniversary and the pending movie directed by John Singleton and starring Billy Bob Thornton and Halle Berry, scheduled for release this year. It’s a convergence point – where politics, nationalism, and drugs combine to rear the ugly head of racism – in an incident where a community unfairly indicted 46 blacks for alleged cocaine distribution – w/ very little due process and with the very spotty testimony of one unrealiable witness – a corrupt bounty hunter of sorts. It’s upsetting to say the least, all the more so as some of these townsfolk claim to be religious, but it’s not my role to re-tell the story.
Any of my friends from TX got the (real) scoop on Tulia?
As per a past post I re-raise this issue where angels fear to tread; well, thank goodness no one reads my blog anyway. Professor of New Testament, Rikk Watts, here @ Regent College has given a chapel lecture titled: “Up Zion’s Hill: Imagining a New Jerusalem” – and I walk away feeling like I missed the punchline – kinda half-full / half-empty – but here’s the synopsis: Read more…
Discovering how healing it is to be @ Regent – to talk about life, vocation, spirituality with other ministers-to-be. There is healing happening here in the context of community. But as I look back in my life I have not always had such support; where the resources of community have been made available to bring restorative listening and “life coaching”. I think of my recent foray into church planting, which has potential to be one of the loneliest periods in a pastors life. So I wonder if there is a way to strategically subvert the alone-ness inherent in planting a church. I’ve already concluded after the failure of missio that if I were ever crazy enough to attempt planting again I would… Read more…
Yeah, I don’t know about this one. And even less about the lyrics… anybody have any clues about what Bono and co. is on to here? Negativity perhaps, and the general mood of pessimism? It “needs a kiss”? Read more…
Love him or hate him – he’s important. He’s the new voice of evangelicalism, and while he may not have received the warmest reception from the chilly crowd in DC, he is going to be the next Billy Graham advising presidents and world leaders. He’s in a caliber of his own. So here I’ve transcribed the text of his invocation – it’s choppy – so feel free to correct – but what did u think of his invocation? Read more…
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