We Are Made of Sound

Where You Can Find Me

2011-12-05T11:22:00.000-08:00

You really thought I was back after that last post, didn't you? Me too.

But it's looking like I won't be here often at all so I would like to give you an update on where you can REALLY find me. Here's what's going on:

1) I'm getting more opportunities to publish my writing elsewhere and would like to keep it that way. From the looks of it, I'll be a contributing writer at Burnside Writers Collective. They were kind enough to publish my piece on a recent trip to Istanbul and liked me enough to give me a password to publish faster. I also agreed to write a devotional on the book of James for Forward Edge International, a missions organization that sends over 1,000 people on short term missions trips a year. My students and I were fortunate enough to go to Nicaragua with them. Hopefully more stuff to appear beyond the arenas of personal blogging.

2) The DEVOTE Podcast series did a lot better than I expected. We have a great number of subscribers already and actually numbering in the hundreds of downloads for some of the episodes. I am going to commit to finishing out 22 episodes and then begin to post one a week starting January 1st. I really like how God has chosen to use it. You can read more about the podcast here and you can subscribe to it here.

3) I am really dedicating a lot of my time to my church, Willamette Christian Church and the students there. I am teaching much more and focusing on trying to multiply disciples in the South Portland area through this awesome body of believers. It's a ton of work and I would rather do it than blog. At least that's how I feel most days.

4) I tweet @chrisnye and am on Facebook.

5) I'll also be at home with my wife. I love her tons. No, you can't come over.

Five Years of Sound and Five Months of Silence

2011-11-17T15:02:00.000-08:00

Author’s note: I have tried to write this post 11 times. I did count and it is sad.

It’s absurd to think that a blog could last forever, that one small spot on the Internet would carry out a life longer than the author. It rarely happens. My silence on the blog has been necessary as well as intentional (although I doubt many of the readers care or even noticed). But now I’m giving my shout from the darkness, a call out to anyone still paying attention and still (unfortunately) subscribed.

I started this blog five years ago yesterday as a place to put my writing. It was November 16^th 2006 and we didn’t know who Katy Perry was. I have loved blogging. A couple of weeks ago, on a day off, I got extremely nostalgic and vainly flipped through a ton of pages (probably too many), re-reading old entires and quietly giggling to myself at the roughness of the blog in many (most) places.

The blog has been purposefully silent as I finished the work on a number of creative projects, of which I will gladly tell you about.

1) The DEVOTE podcast series. I am teaching through a series called “Distant God” with my students. The goal of the series is to recognize that God is not always close to us, but that the distance is normally our deal. The series works out the process of getting nearer to God. While there are no tricks (illusions, Michael) to get God into your life, there are practices that people have been doing for centuries and I think they worked. Not sure. The DEVOTE podcast is a series of 22 audio-devotionals done by yours truly. They are 5-7 minutes long and include a passage or scripture and some thoughts on it. All of this is done aesthetically with music, pauses, swells, etc. It is my attempt to take the classic print-form devotional, re-work it and bring to students where they already are: in their tiny white head phones. The first 10 are available on iTunes now: Search “Willamette Students” in the iTunes store or simply click here or here.

Also, stream a sample here.

2) Better writing (hopefully). During my silence at WAMOS, I actually did not stop writing; I think I wrote more. I have been working on submitting pieces to outside blogs, websites, and publications. One problem with blogging is that you’re the editor and you think your writing is awesome right away. There is a short editing process and it involved one set of eyes. I’m re-entering the world of having someone else give the approval of my verbiage, something I remember loving about writing for newspapers and magazines when I did. I’ve entered the world of rejections and I think it’s making me a better writer.

3) I might still write here and over at a newer Tumblr I began called, A Certain Persuasion, which focuses on the ties between language and belief. Sort of. Please visit every once and a while to see the writing that gets rejected.

Thanks for your patience, I’m hoping to stick around here more. But I must say, because of my silence here, I have had much more creative energy and time. My preaching has certainly improved and I’m hoping my writing/podcasting follows.

Closer

2011-06-30T08:15:00.000-07:00

Thank you for your patience as I have been out of the country and getting caught up as I came back. There has not been much time to write.

I wanted to share this video of what happened in Managua, Nicaragua this past week. My wife and I led 32 students and 6 leaders to the Villa Esperanza for 8 days and it was a life changing experience for all of us. I am so happy my wife came with me as I not only got closer to Jesus in this trip, but I've never felt closer to my wife. We were able to witness horrific injustice and unimaginable beauty in just 8 days together. Something a mentor of mine has been known to say is this: "Shared experiences build intimacy." It's true. Intimacy is complex, especially in marriage, and I feel like there was nothing better for my wife and I to do as we approach our first year than to go to a strange place and learn more about Jesus by serving and being served.

It was a transformational week and I am so extremely proud of my students. We had the whole week with no drama, medical emergencies, or major issues - God truly provided. And I know he provided because we had literally hundreds of people praying for the trip. Because it was so saturated in prayer, God ended up doing remarkable things and for that I'm thankful.

Please take some time to watch this video and thank you for all who were praying for us and supporting us. May God bless you. For the best viewing, make sure you're watching in HD and go full screen with it.

Off to Managua, Nicaragua...with 32 High School Students

2011-06-13T12:11:00.000-07:00

On Thursday night, I will send our first team of 30 to Managua, Nicaragua to serve and be served by the Village of Hope, who takes care of widows and orphans living in the city. On Friday, my wife and I will take another 8 down to make a total of 38 people ready to follow God to Nicaragua.

This has been an incredible process of faith. I've been able to watch young high school students raise an incredible amount of money and pray incredible prayers for their friends and people they've never met.

I'll be with my students and leaders until the end of the month, so needless to say this blog will be extremely quiet. However, I'm happy to point you to our minsitry's blog where (hopefully) we'll have daily updates of the goings on in Managua. The series will be called "Field Notes from Managua" and will include photos and blog entries from team members. I'd love for the followers of this blog to get a piece of what I get to do for a living. I can't even believe I'm paid to take kids to experience God with people who are materially poor, but relationally rich. I'm excited for all of what we have to learn.

Here's a link to the students blog.

We also made this video asking you all to join us in prayer:

The Command is for Doing

2011-06-11T12:30:00.000-07:00

A man approaches Jesus and says, "What's the most important commandment in all of the Scriptures?" The answer Jesus gives sounds at first a little dodgy: "Hear, O, Israel the Lord your God is One...and you shall love Him with all of your heart, and with all of your soul, and with all of your mind, and with all of your strength."

Of all the commands given in the Bible, Jesus reveals that the greatest command is not about doing something, but primarily about knowing somebody.

We want a checklist, we want steps to get to heaven and ways to please God because we want to take care of our own salvation. We want it on our shoulders and in our hands. But, as Jonah reminds us, "Salvation belongs to the Lord" and it is not our condition to save ourselves with good works.

So since we cannot save ourselves, the number one command Jesus gives is to love God. To get to know Him. To begin an understanding of his Personhood and Life. But hold on...

This command dates back to the early days of the Jewish faith and in speaking about this command God says, "The command is very near to you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it."

The command to know God, to love Him with everything we have is very close to us and in our ability for what reason? So that we can do it.

Here lies the connection: While the greatest command is not to do but to love, nevertheless, our love drives us to do something. As Bob Goff would say, "When you love, you do." It's that simple. I love my wife, therefore I do things for her. I love my family, therefore I serve them and spend time with them and do things for them.

Why do we have this backwards? We're so busy trying to go on missions trips, camps, and service projects so that God might think we're awesome and love us. But the reality is we must know His love for us and, in return, be given a love that drives us to do something about it all.

If you love God, you pray to Him and read His word and serve those around you. The Bible also tells us that if we do not love people, we are a liar when we say, "I love God."

This simple command to love God is not about saying we love God, but rather the command is there for us so that we can do it. Saying you love God does not mean you're a Christian. Knowing God produces a life filled with the Holy Spirit and driven to action: We pray, we seek God, we read, we serve, we spend our lives giving to others. The command to love God is meant for doing something about it. Because when you love, you do.

Praying for Nothing

2011-06-10T13:59:00.000-07:00

At some point early in our teenage years, every boy and girl has to face the reality that prayer is not a simple discipline. No where is it more honestly and simply recorded than in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain:

“Then Miss Watson she took me in the closet and prayed, but nothing come of it. She told me to pray every day, and whatever I asked for I would get it. But it warn’t so. I tried it. Once I got a fish-line, but no hooks. It warn’t any good to me without hooks. I tried for the hooks three or four times, but somehow I couldn’t make it work. By and by, one day, I asked Miss Watson to try for me, but she said I was a fool. She never told me why, and I couldn’t make it out no way."

I never blame Huck for his views on religion. Huck is a boy. Miss Watson is a woman who has somehow ignored the fact that she doesn't get what she asks for all of the time. That's a little screwy.

These two characters are in our church. I'm mostly trying to persuade the Huck's to consider different definitions of the fundamentals they grew up with, but I also get to meet Miss Watson, who tends to speak for Huck and even answer the questions I direct at him. Both, however, have the misunderstanding that prayer serves one purpose: to get what you can't get yourself.

This is certainly a purpose of prayer: petition. The Scriptures tell us that we don't have some things simply because we don't ask God for them. But it's not solely what prayer is for. Prayer is for meditation, for reflection, for connecting with God, and so many more things.

That's why when Jesus taught his disciples how to pray (after they asked him), he gives us an extremely comprehensive and somewhat broad prayer, which includes worshipful, relational, petitionary, and reflective/repentant language. It's complex.

Overall, when Jesus asked things of his Father, he always put the relationship with God above the request with the line, "your will be done" and a repeating use of the word, "Father." Jesus always kept prayer multifaceted. We don't always get what we want, but God always gives us what we need: access to Him and His throne.

If your prayer is not being "answered," consider perhaps that what you need above your request being fulfilled is a relationship and knowledge of the Almighty. That might not change your circumstance, but it will certainly change you.

Why the Bereans Were Noble in Character

2011-06-04T09:41:00.000-07:00

There's this strange passage in Luke's account of the early church where he accounts one group of early believers as more noble than another. The passage is short and reads like this in one translation:

"Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true."
-Acts 17:11

I have read that passage before and thought, Ah yes, these Bereans were solid because they received the word with eagerness. That is true. But it is only half of the whole truth.

The Bereans not only received Paul's message with eagerness, but they examined the Scriptures every day to see if Paul was right about Jesus.

First century Jews were not ones to easily give up their faith. Berean Jews would not just shrug their shoulders and follow whatever was popular (which was not Christianity at that time, anyways). In fact, Bereans were some of the most educated of 1st century Jews and Luke says they were more noble because of their eagerness to examine the Scriptures.

One thing that drives me a little crazy is how many of us hear something a good speaker says and automatically believe it. We'll hear one side of something or hear something said strongly with enough authority and we're willing to take it as our own. It's not necessarily a great argument, but the person said it with enough gusto that we assume it to be right. That's what most of cable news is today and I'm afraid some of our churches are leaning this way.

My friend Branden often says in his sermons, "Don't take my word for it, look at the Scriptures and examine it for yourself." The Bereans were not noble in character for just accepting and agreeing with Paul, they did their homework.

Strange thing is, this is the next verse:

"As a result, many of them believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men."

The product of their eager examination was to believe. Not the other way around. Many people blame the movement of Christianity on ignorance. And perhaps, yes, it started with fishermen, but it didn't stop when it reached the scholars.

There is Nothing Safe About Childhood

2011-06-02T21:41:00.000-07:00

"It's a hard world for little things"

- Rachel Cooper, The Night of the Hunter

Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm were brothers who spent their lives researching culture and studying linguistics. They also had a knack for folk tales and spent another portion of their life editing, writing and compiling tales for children in their native German language. The result would be Grimm's Fairy Tales, where we get classics like Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, and Snow White.

When the tales were first published in 1812, they were met with fierce criticism because they were too violent, sexual, and "adult themed" to be marketed to children. Many reviewers rejected the first printing and the brothers set out to make several updated editions over the next number of years that toned down some of the graphic content. They removed overtly sexual jokes and turned the "wicked mother" into a "wicked stepmother." But one thing they didn't erase but in fact escalated was the violence in the stories.

That's why we have these old stories about wolves chasing little girls, step-mothers planning the death of young innocent ones, and little boys being run down by malicious candy shop owners. They are "fairy tales" for children however they are extremely unsafe stories filled with terror.

I spend my life with families who have kids exiting childhood. And far too often I meet students who have been told a lie their whole life. They have had parents who were wealthy and supportive and loving, but not honest. These students have been protected from the one reality they need to know: life is dangerous.

In the attempt to keep their children "innocent" and "free," parents tell their children a different type of fairy tale, a modern American story: everyone loves you because you're special, you are good at everything you try, and if you work hard enough and be a good little boy or girl, you'll be successful. Also, you'll never die.

Of course the language is not as blunt, but this is what we tell kids with our actions. We tell them all of this under the banner of "protecting them." They can't see certain things because it will damage their innocence, ruin their good heart, and give them a bad name.

But doesn't Scripture tell us such a different story? It's a lot more similar to Grimm's Fairy Tales. The horrific truth of life is that nothing about childhood is safe and everything about everyone is dangerous. The Bible says that there is no one who lives correctly, that the world is filled with people who will try to tear you apart, and you and I are contributors to the madness. You don't teach your son to disobey. He's already pretty good at that.

One time I was speaking at a conference and I mentioned that I am slow to trust people. Afterward, a woman came up to me and said, "You're a pastor and you don't quickly trust people - that seems kind of backwards. Wouldn't the Christian thing to do be to assume the best about people?" But the problem is that the Bible actually assumes the worst about everybody. I am slow to trust people because most people are looking out for their own benefit and not the common good.

What I've realized over time is that I am also slow to trust others because I have no trust in myself. If no one is "good," then neither am I. Hansel and Gretel, Little Red Riding Hood, and all of the characters in those old stories made mistakes of their own that nearly cost them their life.

This is why the Bible tells us to "Trust the Lord" with all of our hearts and "lean not on your own understanding." Because of our crooked hearts, we see the world around us as either "not so bad" or too terrible to ever expose to our children. The trick of parenting becomes shepherding kids through their own brokenness, letting them in on the tragedy of the world at the same time as you let them in on the goodness of God.

We are right in desiring for our children to never be corrupted, but we must remember that we cannot save them from this world. That's why God, the best Father, sent His perfect Son Jesus to be corrupted for us so that we might be delivered from evil. This phrase "delivered from evil," should emphasize the word "deliver," for it infers that we are to spend some time amongst wicked things, namely ourselves. It's useless pretending there's no big bad wolf. God rescues us from it all.

Until then, we train our children in the understanding that enemies abound, and our greatest adversary is closer than you think, closer than under your bed or in your closet: it's right under your rib cage.

Tweet It and You've Got It

2011-05-30T20:42:00.000-07:00

Some friends and I were recently talking about broadcasting ideas onto the Internet; the limited editing, the quickness at which we fall in love with an idea, and how we publish something with such ease that remains in one "space" forever.

The conversation turned to how we communicate things we're learning about God and how the "publish" or "share" or "tweet" button gives the idea a type of permanence and championing. It's there. Forever-ish. And people recognize you as thoughtful and sort of sharp. They "like" it, comment on it, or retweet it. Instantly, you feel good about it all and never have to revisit that thought.

I realize how easy this is: you feel convicted by an eternal truth, you write it down, and share it publicly and then make the dangerous but easy step of convincing yourself that by tweeting or sharing it online, you've mastered it.

Think it. Tweet/Blog/Status Update it. Boom. Mastered. Never have to think about that one again. Strangely dangerous.

Also, I've got to mention to irony that I'm sharing this in a blog post right? No matter the incongruity, I find myself struggling deeply with this idea: Just because we share a truth does not mean that it has changed our life, that it has sunk in at all.

Right now, I am sharing with you about how we too quickly share truths that they never sink deep enough to change us. Now that I've shared it, can I just continue on blogging and tweeting everything I think?

I don't think I need to have "mastered" everything I share, but I do need to be sure that it's done something in my life. Because you can't take people to a place you've never been. Right?

[Insert Apocalyptic Pun Blog Title Here]

2011-05-29T14:02:00.000-07:00

With all of the verses that were thrown out on the Internet over the past couple of weeks, the ones that stick in my head are ones like this: "For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths."

That's from 2 Timothy 4. It is, in my opinion, Paul's best advice to his protege, Timothy.

Why? Because there's something very off about the human heart, that is, about my heart: we hear what we want to hear.

But I've lived just long enough to realize that what I desperately want to be true is certainly not true. Well, not all of the time at least. With physical realities and science, this is easy. When something is able to be proven over and over, no matter how you "feel" about gravity we know that it's true. Your dreams of flight will stay in your slumber.

Our metaphysical realities are much more difficult to harness. And if we begin with the basis that humans are generally good people and that you and I have hearts that are "in the right place," then we quickly build up a solid trust of our own heads.

Religious, secular, or spiritual people have this issue. And it's ultimately what ended up blowing this whole Harold Camping/Family Radio Apocalypse thing way out of proportion. Camping was able to communicate this and garner enough publicity to reach those who genuinely and desperately wanted this to be true. And in America, all you have to do is strike a heart-string and you've won people's lives.

The Los Angeles Times reported on some Family Radio Followers' reactions to the Non-Rapture and told the story of Keith Bauer, a 38 year-old truck driver who took the week off of work to travel the US before the Rapture with his family. He pulled his kids out of school and took off for 10 days.

"If it was his last week on Earth, he wanted to see parts of it he'd always heard about but missed, such as the Grand Canyon. With maxed-out credit cards and a growing mountain of bills, he said, the rapture would have been a relief."

Keith didn't need God, Keith needed a rapture, a way out of his life - he wanted to hit the restart button because he was losing lives fast. As Christians, we've gotten very good at getting out from under the Bible and truth by listening to our Pastor when he says, "What God really means here is..." or "This isn't what it looks like..." when most often it really is.

We look for ways out of what God says because normally what he says is really difficult to understand and ever more difficult to practice.

I don't blame Keith because he's a lot like me. He wanted his circumstances to change and wanted God's help with that, instead of recognizing that the common denominator to his circumstances was the one thing he is unwilling to give up: himself.

What's Wrong With Everything

2011-05-18T16:30:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, you hear something or say something so often that the meaning is stripped.

Earlier this week, Senator Rand Paul was commenting on the rising fuel prices and the Senate's dispute over taxing big oil companies when he said, "We're going to raise the cost of the oil companies by raising their taxes, which means you'll pay more at the pump. It is economic illiteracy and it is what's wrong up here in Washington."

"What's wrong here in Washington" is a favorite rhetorical phrase uttered by most of our politicians on both sides of the isle. Along with "the American people want..." and "Our Founding Fathers didn't mean…”, claiming that something is wrong with Washington is just something you start saying when you work in national politics.

The irony of Paul's comment (and many others) is that he's a Senator working in Washington and the son of a long-time senator. He is a part of the broken system. He is a cog in the messed up wheel. And by the way, I only single out Senator Paul because he was the most recent guy to say it.

When you look at our language in the church, not much is different. Many pastors (myself included) have uttered the phrase, "we live in a broken world," or "the problem with the world is..." And with one breath and half of a sentence what the politicians in Washington and we have just done is distance ourselves from the very problem we have created.

Paul is a piece of the broken Washington machine and we are a part of the broken world. To say that “the world” is destroying all we know that is good, excellent, and beautiful is to excuse our hearts from their own brokenness and sit atop our own prideful spirit.

Just because you prayed a prayer for Jesus to “come into your heart” (another empty rhetorical phrase) does not mean you are done with brokenness. Repentance is not a one-time show; it is a process, perhaps even a lifestyle of turning our hearts back to God. When you surrender to God, you don’t end your brokenness instantly, you begin the process of being made into the image of Jesus. And that’ll take your whole life.

Until then, you and I are not the solution to what is broken, we are what is broken. And Jesus is the solution. We place our hope in the fact that he’ll go on making all things new - us included.

N.T. Wright Settles It...Again.

2011-05-17T16:06:00.000-07:00

A number of months ago I wrote about my problems with Stephen Hawking's atheism and found that many people had the same issues. His latest philosophies and writings have been met with much debate and not a whole lot of praise.

Most recently, my hero and international man of legitimacy, the scholar N.T. Wright posted a great piece in the Washington Post's "On Faith" section. He, along with many, are disappointed in Hawking and others's weak Biblical intellect and simple Christian worldview:

"It’s depressing to see Stephen Hawking, one of the most brilliant minds in his field, trying to speak as an expert on things he sadly seems to know rather less about than many averagely intelligent Christians...

...Hawking is working with a very low-grade and sub-biblical view of ‘going to heaven’...Of course, the old set-up of the ‘science and religion’ debate was itself deeply influenced by this same worldview, and needs realigning. In fact, the ancient Christians would have been shocked to see their worldview labelled as a ‘religion.’ It was a philosophy, a politics, a culture, a vocation... the category of ‘religion’ is part of the problem, not part of the solution."

You can read the whole thing here. N.T. Wright is the Anglican Bishop of Durham, England and is the author of several scholarly works, most notably his take on the resurrection entitled, The Resurrection of the Son of God, which is freaking huge. His best, most accessible work is called, Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense and I think most of you should look into reading it. Maybe. Ok. Do it.

The Right Match

2011-05-06T11:21:00.000-07:00

A fish is a sweet animal because it can breath underwater. Fresh green grass is beautiful and on a sunny day it doesn't get much better than taking a nap in it under a tree. Put that awesome fish with that fine grass and you'll get a dead fish in the grass. Also, an embarrassing clean-up process.

We know this rule: the combination of two things need complimentary characteristics that makes them work well together. Opposites attract. She's outgoing and he's shy. That fish has gills and fins that work perfectly when underwater and not that well on the grass (believe me, I tried it once when I was little and my dad got really mad at me and I spent that night in my room, grounded because he just paid for that fish and that's his money that he works so da -- just don't do it).

When my brother and I were little, my dad would make Mac 'n' Cheese. My brother loves Mac and loves cheese, but would never touch Mac 'n' Cheese. Why? He didn't think they went together well (I know, and he's in therapy so we're happy).

Nature tells us that often times we are most free when we are set up under certain restrictions of a complimentary match - when we have found a mate or a habitat we can best exist with. But what we end up doing with our lives is parceling ourselves out to everything we find awesome. We put a little bit of ourselves with a girl, a little bit of ourselves to our family, and most of ourselves to school or a job. We even split our time living in one place and buying another house that we can relax in.

Instead of finding our whole self in one place, we take pieces of ourselves and dish it out to a ton of different things we think are good. And they are good, but is it the right match?

Christians are really good at messing with this. How often do you hear someone list out their priorities as "God first, family second, and ministry/work third"? I hear it all the time. We have our "God time" in the morning so we can have "work time" during the day and then "family time" at night (except when a good game is on, then you have "me time").

Did Jesus do this? Did he have neatly blocked time frames to "be with God" and then "do ministry" and then "hang with his homies." Not at all. In fact, there are multiple times where Jesus is trying to get to a secluded place to rest and people bother him. He doesn't say, "excuse me, but you're interrupting my quiet time." No, he serves them.

And why?

Because you live one life and you are one person. God is not a device that you turn on and off and neither is your family. Every decision you make is a spiritual decision and every word you say is a spiritual word.

God is our perfect match, but only when our whole life is given to Him and defined by Him. Giving one day a week to God is not what the Scriptures have told us, giving our very lives to God is exactly what the Scriptures have told us. Placing all of who you are under the freeing restriction of God changes not necessarily what you do, but how you go about doing everything.

Us with God. That is how life is supposed to work. The difficult thing is realizing that the "us" part is more complex than you might think and the "with" part is more dangerous than we would like.

A Safer World?

2011-05-02T14:19:00.000-07:00

Something that has changed in our globalized world is that we're able to hear "America" react to major events instantly. We're able to hear how everyone is handling everything all of the time.

In an event like yesterday's, my Christian brothers and sisters become increasingly confused: do I agree with people who are happy or do I agree with people who are calm about it all? Do I "love my enemy" right now or do I rejoice in the death of a wicked man?

With the spread of communication much authority has been lost, so we hear everything and decide quickly. That's why you get high school students saying they agree with a certain position because "it just makes sense." What they mean by that is, "the person who said that made me feel better." The loudest voice wins.

On the flip side, the beauty of the interconnected age is that it gives a critical thinker tons of resources. If you can tune out the noise to enjoy the music of healthy discourse, you'll have a sound opinion and a better view of the world. And in our critical thinking, we realize that everything is not so simple.

Jon Furman works down the hall from me and saves me from a lot of mistakes. I suggest, amidst the noise, you listen to Jon's summation of the noise and his call to us to remember that it pains God to pronounce judgement on his creation.

“Say to them; 'As I live,’ says the Lord God, 'I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?”- Ezekiel 33:11

Even at the death of an evil man, we can make some evil remarks about it all. True followers of Jesus do not react wickedly to evil. Just because a dangerous man falls doesn't mean we get out from under God's call on our lives. We don't get out of jail free, remember.

Certainly, as our President said, the world is safer without a guy like Bin Laden around. But let's remember that we also are extremely dangerous individuals. Evil does not just exist in a suburb of Pakistan, it's trying to make its way out of our own hearts. This much is clear: we need Jesus just as much as the next guy.

Is There Anything Right About the USA Today Website?

2011-04-30T15:29:00.000-07:00

I have to admit, I never went to USAToday.com until today and I made that decision for multiple reasons. One, if your newspaper design is terrible, it's close to guaranteed that your website will make me want to blow chunks. Secondly, I'm pretty sure Yahoo! News just buys USAToday stories anyways.

But I was sent there for the first time and decided to get a look at their home page and OHMYWORDWHATTHEHECK

(Please click on the image to barf)

This is what happens when you stop caring. So many things to pick apart, but can we just start with a simple question: Why do you have an ad for the 2010 Census in your upper right hand ad-space? And why is it so pixilated? It is nearly May of 2011 so I'm pretty sure the guy who forgot to fill out his census will see this ad and still think it to be too much of an effort. If the Census paid top dollar for this, then good on you, USAToday.

Secondly, your front page story is on the fifth Fast & Furious movie with a promise that it delivers "high octane entertainment." But not to be missed is the assorted list of top headlines to the right of Vin Diesel as if he were curious in the top stories, which include: Mariah Carey's twins, warning for homebuyers, and the third most popular article (second list of sentences as you move right from Mr. Diesel) "Casey Abrams says he growled too much."

America!!!

What's the worst website design you've ever seen? I'm talking like this bad.

The American Gods

2011-04-26T09:08:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite quotes is from A.W. Tozer and it goes like this: "What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us."

Baylor University sociologists Paul Froese and Christopher Bader have contributed what seems to be an excellent study of what American people think about when they say, "God."

95% of Americans believe in "God," so the issue obviously becomes one of definition. Who is this God? I find it increasingly helpful to have a name to the God we worship as Christians, saying the name of Jesus is a quick way to separate and tear down misconceptions people hold in their mind when they think about "God." Nonetheless, there still lies many divisions in our definition of "God" and the role he has in the universe.

Froese and Bader have released, America's Four Gods: What We Say About God - and What That Says About Us and I've been holding out for the paperback. Thankfully, the wonderful people at Duke's Faith & Leadership posted a great article summarizing a lot of the scholarly ground work included in the book. In the results of the study, Froese and Bader find these common adjectives amongst most Americans:

The Authoritative God: God is like a literal father, both engaged as a positive force in the world and a judge of the behaviors of humankind. Suffering can be the result of social and individual sins.
The Benevolent God: God is mainly a force for good in the world, a being who answers the prayers of individuals and comforts the suffering.
The Critical God: God is less likely to be concerned with moments in the lives of individuals, but will mete out judgments in the next life. This is a popular image among the poor and oppressed, the authors state.
The Distant God: God is a cosmic force that sets the laws of nature in motion, but does not get involved in day-to-day events or movements.

Read the whole thing here.

Taking Jesus For All That He Is

2011-04-25T21:43:00.000-07:00

It is difficult to find somebody who disagrees with Jesus' teachings. No matter what someone thinks about Christianity, when they are shown the raw teachings of Jesus they are impressed and inspired. Mostly. But Jesus being Lord over all and the Son of God? That seems like a stretch, they say.

On face value, I totally agree. I mean, the guy said some good things, but can't people who say good things also have messianic delusions? In fact, Mark Oppenhiemer of The New York Times said this exact thing (quite out of the blue) a month ago in his article about the new C.S. Lewis Bible. And I've thought about that when I was first getting into this whole Christian thing.

Jesus said great things, sure, but when it came to it, after he said these great things and got a following he just started thinking a little too highly of himself and said some things that weren't true.

But hold on...

In an examination of Christ's teachings, it becomes pretty clear that every one of his commands is actually rooted in his Messianic identity (the fact that he is God). Observe, just my top three favorite teachings:

Do you like his teachings on love? They are based in the fact that He is love. He is the source and creator and sustainer of all love.

Do you like his teaching on peace? They are based on the fact that he is peace. He is the source of the Sabbath and the creator of the seventh day.

Do you like his teachings on forgiveness and loving your enemies? It is based on the fact that he was killed by his enemies and yet he died forgiving them.

You can't separate Jesus' teachings from who he is because one informs the other. An examination of Christ's words show us that His teaching is founded upon a claim of who he really is. Biblically speaking: commands are always rooted in promises.

I stole that last line from Jeff Patterson. DEAL WITH IT.

Seeing Through

2011-04-23T21:47:00.000-07:00

A guy who works with me at the church once said, "Think less about cool and more about Jesus." I like that. When I heard that I took it to mean that whatever we do should be see-through.

Many people love the worship music at churches and say they go "for the music." Some people obsess over the Bible teaching and say they go "for the teaching." They say things like, "it's just so solid" or "the music leader is so wonderful." Or what about the building? "The facility is really nice."

These are kind compliments, but they miss the point.

We see all over the Bible that Jesus is the point. If you look closely at the Greek, Jesus wasn't building his church on the rock of Peter, he was building his church on himself, the Rock of Ages. And if you listen to his words about the Holy Spirit, you'll see that the whole idea of the Spirit is to point back to Jesus. And if you listen to the Risen Christ's words to the men on the road to Emmaus, you'll understand that the entire Old Testament was a testimony of the Messiah to come, who would be named Jesus.

He's the point.

And so we like the music. And we love the teaching. We like the buildings and we enjoy the classes. I end up meeting a lot of people who are Christians because they found a nice little niche in the Evangelical sub-culture. They can act like a Christian, like Christian things, and enjoy Christian friends. But can they see through all of that?

Jesus, for all of us, gives the tangible form of the intangible. As the Scriptures tell us, he is the image of the invisible. He is the point because he is very clear and specific.

So churches like ours sings songs, opens the Bible, and gathers together in order that we might see Jesus. The problem becomes when we forget that all of this stuff is see-through.

In an age where everyone is "spiritual" and many people "go to church," let's remember that we go to church to meet Jesus, sing songs to Jesus, and we open the Word so that we might know Jesus.

The Bible is not the point. The Church is not the point. The music is not the point. The Community Group is not the point. Jesus is the point. And we make these practices so that we might be reminded of Him and the riches that are included within. All of our rituals are but windows.

But they are important because windows show us where to look. Nobody puts a window in place to view the garbage dump, it's a crummy view. No, if you're building your house you put windows by the beautiful view of the river or the mountains. Likewise, we point our teaching, music, and services toward the wonderful view of an accurate picture of a good God.

When you go to Easter service tomorrow, don't just look at the music, teaching, or people; try and see through it all - for there you may find God himself.

In the Garden for the Win

2011-04-23T18:15:00.000-07:00

Just got back from the Rose Garden where I watched our Blazers come back from being down 23 in the third quarter, to win by 2 and even the series 2-2. At the height of our deficit, I looked at my buddy Alex who generously took me to the game and said, "This is not the playoff experience I was hoping for." I was so wrong. This WAS EXACTLY WHAT I WAS LOOKING FOR. And while I mostly blog about following Jesus, I thought I would take one post for a shout out to those Blazers.

I actually have enjoyed reading the local Dallas writers after this win. It's hilarious to read an article titled, "Mavs blow by Blazers in the 3rd, silence crowd" to Tim MacMahon's lead, "The Mavericks managed to blow a 23-point second-half lead, an unbelievable collapsed even by the standards of Dallas’ disturbing recent playoff history."

It's a great day to be a Blazer, that's for sure.

The Greatest Speech of All Time

2011-04-22T09:42:00.000-07:00

I had to...I. Had. To.

HT: John Finnerty Design

Can't Decide If 60 Minutes is Brilliant or a Piece of Trash

2011-04-21T16:00:00.000-07:00

It's too bad that the same people responsible for Andy Rooney are the same people who bring fantastic profiles of the world's best and worst. 60 Minutes is one of those shows I find myself getting super excited about and then hating. I can't decide where I land.

Over the past two weeks, the television news magazine has compiled two very opposing, brilliant stories. The first is about the winningest coach in high school basketball, Bob Hurley, and his rejection of college jobs, money, and play at the next level. He is content with coaching St. Anthony's, a small Catholic school in New Jersey. He is involved because he loves the city and loves the kids - even if it makes him $9,000 a year.

This past week, 60 Minutes single-handedly took down Greg Mortenson, best-selling author and acclaimed "humanitarian." The crew of journalists traveled all of the world, getting comment after comment and story after story that proved Mortenson's heart-wrenching stories of helping Middle Eastern countries build schools to be fabricated and false. Turns out for all the good he has done, many of his memoirs are untrue and many of his school buildings are either wildly underfunded or empty. Furthermore, his non-profit has been bankrolling a lot of Mortenson's speaking gigs: spending 1.7 million on book-related expenses and 1.3 million on building schools. Sounds a bit uneven. The publishers are now reviewing his books.

Yikes. Two very different profiles, huh? And both reported by Steve Kroft! Nice!

But what's going on here? These are both fascinating stories for different reasons: in the first, we have a noble dude doing something small, but great, something he is recognized for but makes little money or notoriety for. In the second, we have a world famous humanitarian who's doing it all wrong.

The difference is in the details. Both guys are on 60 minutes, both guys are seen in the public eye in one way or another, but they both got to that program's airwaves in very different ways.

Americans desire to accomplish something amazing: a new wakeboarding record, a better company, a bigger church. We all value great things and huge successes, but is this what God honors?

I like that the God of the Bible doesn't really care if you're famous and successful by other people's standards or not, he just cares if you're faithful. The wisdom books of the Scriptures tell us to seek "righteousness," which we sometimes view translated as "unattainably perfect behavior." But "righteousness" could be translated as "right living." This is a word that is about the process of our accomplishments and how we go about attaining what we attain. We do not value the process, do we? We value the ends, not the means.

The Christian life is about embracing all that Christ is in order to achieve this righteousness because he is righteousness. He didn't just live rightly, he lived perfectly - and in our place. He is not just the means and not just the end, but he is both, described by a Greek-culture as the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.

These stories show us that while what you accomplish is quite important, how you go about accomplishing it matters more than you know.

Too Legit To Quit

2011-04-19T08:20:00.000-07:00

I didn't come up with that title - this guy did.

Due to an increase in traffic and my desire to take this blog to the outermost spaces of the cosmos, I decided to purchase a little spot for myself on the interwebs. If you've dropped in anytime after Sunday afternoon, you were redirected to the much cleaner www.wearemadeofsound.com

Yeah! So this shouldn't mess up anyone's RSS, but if it does let me know. And hey, now that the annoying ".blogspot" is out of our way, I think we can get a lot more done together. So pass that URL around as much as you like. Finally, thanks to you all who pass this around to one another, it's cool to hear the random people who read/enjoy and the growing number of visitors I see on my little statistical report. Friends of WAMOS, this one's for you (wait for the guitar solo around 2:48)...SING IT LEANN!!!

Bringing Out the Best

2011-04-17T08:52:00.000-07:00

When I was growing up in the church, I was told to have someone in my life who would be able to check in on me daily and “keep me accountable” to God’s Word. Sweet idea. But in my high school years and even my early college years, it became a little difficult to have a good relationship with someone whose partial purpose was to make sure you were lined up with the rules correctly.

The role of many of my “accountability partners” became a tired checklist of specific sins. Are you doing this? Are you thinking this? Did you say anything like this? And if I did, it was time to pray it all away.

But I didn’t fully realize the weakness of this system until I met John. He had always been a friend of mine, but it wasn’t until we moved into a tiny apartment in Northwest Portland that I really began to admire the guy. He was honorable without trying to be honorable, he was godly without talking much about it, and he was naturally and effortlessly generous even though he had very little money.

What I came to find out over those years was that Biblical community is more about aspiring to be like Jesus together rather than aspiring to not be like yourself. Do you see the difference?

John was the best guy to live with not only because he was a better dude than me, but because he actually brought out great things in me that I didn’t know existed: abilities, talents, and character traits that were buried in my difficult heart would begin to surface and bear fruit.

I started to recognize that I had the same type of relationship with my girlfriend. She brought the best out in me. After realizing that, I married her as soon as I could because along with being such a good woman, she was also super hot, a trait John never really had in my eyes.

So often, people want to be in small groups and community groups and even romantic relationships to check up and make sure they’re doing everything right and squashing everything that's wrong. But is that the gospel? Why are we focused on looking at one another through the lens of doing the right thing?

We surround ourselves with people who suppress the worst things in us when instead we should surround ourselves with people who actually bring out the best in us, namely the Christ that is within us. Because once the greatness of God begins to be brought out in us, the worst of us will disappear.

This is what prompted C.S. Lewis to write his famous passage on true friendship:

“We possess each friend not less but more as the number of those with whom we share him increases. In this, Friendship exhibits a glorious ‘nearness by resemblance’ to Heaven itself where the very multitude of the blessed (which no man can number) increases the fruition which each has of God. For every soul, seeing Him in her own way, doubtless communicates that unique vision to all the rest. That, says an old author, is why the Seraphim in Isaiah’s vision are crying ‘Holy, Holy, Holy’ to one another (Isaiah 6:3). The more we thus share the Heavenly Bread between us, the more we shall all have.”
-C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves

Starting Your Day Out Right

2011-04-14T00:18:00.000-07:00

This guy:

Tim Keller on Stories

2011-04-14T00:07:00.000-07:00

Well. This just blew my mind.

I was fortunate enough to be introduced to J.R.R. Tolkien's brilliantly difficult-to-read essay, "On Fairy Stories" when I was a Senior in high school. I remember getting one thing out of it: While fairy stories show little resemblance to real life both on the factual and experiential level, we need them more than ever because they tell us how things ought to be. Just because life is a certain, does not mean that life should be that way: fairy tales give us a glimpse into deep, rich truths that tell us the way life ought to be - that death should lead to life, that sacrifice should bring joy, and that the fight is actually worth it.

I mention this because I found this absolute gem of a video, which is really an audio clip placed over horrific slides of rainbows and mountains. Don't watch the video, but listen to it. The audio clip is of my modern intellectual hero, Dr. Timothy Keller, explaining the purpose of stories. Don't try to listen to this if you're not ready to give 13 full minutes of your attention. Don't do your taxes while listening to this. Don't watch TV while listening to this. Just listen to this:

HT: Justin Taylor

"But he was in the stern"

2011-04-12T12:40:00.000-07:00

When the disciples were caught in one of the worst storms they had seen on the sea, they believed they were going to die. Remember, these men were 1st century fishermen and a storm was nothing new. Yet this one was bad. They are quoted yelling for their lives as Jesus lay asleep in the stern of the boat.

What did the fishermen do?

"And they woke him and said to him, 'Rabbi...'"

They woke up the Rabbi. Sounds like the start to a bad joke. Often times we go on from this point in the story, but I'd like to stop us all here: in the midst of the storm, they woke up the teacher.

They not only woke up the teacher, they woke up the Messiah, God himself in flesh. So, let's make this simple and short: when a storm comes your way, what do you do?

Often times, we try to battle out the storm and fight it, all the while waiting for God. We wait. And we wait. And we wait. "Where is God now?" we ask. We blame him and believe him away from our lives.

Wake. Him. Up.

God will not leave you, but he might have his face turned away, he might be asleep or in other words: he might be waiting on you. If you are in the storm and waiting for God, it's time that you go to the depths of your vessel and wake him up. Speak to him, yell at him, shake him in the cages of your soul - for it might be time for a miracle.

A Reality Check

2011-04-12T12:01:00.000-07:00

When I was studying the rhetorical characteristics of Evangelical churches in Portland, I came across a scholar from Columbia University named Randall Balmer, who quickly became an inspiration to my work. I read pockets of his book, Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory: A Journey into the Evangelical Subculture in America, to help guide my limited studies and was fascinated with his quasi-journalistic but still scholastic approach to the faith culture.

Balmer goes from state to state cataloging interviews with evangelical leaders and lay-people within certain states. Since I was studying the churches in suburban Portland, I combed through his section on Oregon. Now, I'm re-reading the entire book in hopes to get a new perspective on this movement many of us find ourselves sitting in and wrestling with.

One of the best things we can do as humans is to read or listen to those outside of our own little stories. This book, if you so choose to tackle it, will certainly humble you as an evangelical Christian.

Balmer grew up in a fundamentalist Evangelical household and he does not claim to have an "objective" view on the culture as no good historian can, he says. Objectivity is an impossibility. But somehow while he gives up his objectivity, he does not surrender his scholarship. The book is such a brilliant twist of journalism and scholarship; I love it and recommend it, especially if you work within the evangelical subculture. So much of the gospel can get lost in normalized language and practices that only help us identify with one another instead of God.

I just write this post to recommend this unique work, but also to share this quote, which compares evangelicalism to adolescence (like I said, humbling) in an interview with the scholar Douglas W. Frank:

"No stage of life is more prone to hero worship than adolescence. An adolescent is strongly influenced by group conformity and the expectations of other people; it's a stage in which self-consciousness is at its height. 'I see [evangelicals]...constantly comparing themselves to the standards of spiritual behavior they've established and asking "How am I doing?" and "Am I good enough?" and "How do I appear to others?"' Spiritual appearances are very important to evangelicals, just as an adolescent spends a lot of time in front of the mirror."
-Randall Balmer, Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory, p. 269

As Liz Lemon would say, "Ya burnt!" This hurts only because I see a lot of my own journey in this passage.

I celebrate a lot of what Evangelicalism has brought to Jesus followers everywhere, heck I've worked in Evangelical churches since I graduated from high school. This is not a picture of 100% of the Evangelical movement, but you have to admit it's pretty spot on for a lot of our experience, huh?

We must lead ourselves and our people away from self-obsessed spiritual adolescence.

First Crack at Self-Publishing

2011-04-11T10:49:00.000-07:00

In our growing youth ministry, there's a lot to celebrate. I have loved watching more and more kids show up on Wednesday Nights, to see the numbers rise because each of those numbers represents a real kid who has started plugging in, making relationships, and learning about Jesus. Some pastors say, "Well, I don't care about numbers, I just love people." The truth is, as Pastor Joel reminded me this weekend, if you really love people you would want more and more people coming to church where they can meet other individuals who know Christ. It's that simple. In the church, attendance "numbers" is just a way of representing people.

So as we've been growing, it was amazing to see 33 of our students answer the call to come to Managua, Nicaragua this summer. We've been raising money and training our students for the last month, watching God provide over and over again. As we slow down the financial emphasis, we're turning our eyes toward preparing spiritually. One of our leaders came up with the idea to do a devotional book before we left for the trip, something we could all do together. It was difficult for me to find one that would work well for us, so I decided to write one.

I focused the 18-day devotional on the Christian virtue of servanthood, calling the book, Not Your Gut Instinct. I had some help and input from our staff, but the finished product looked pretty good despite my lack of design skills. It took tons of work but reminded me how much I love putting together and assembling a long-form piece.

Writing blog posts is somewhat easy; they act as stand-alone little messages that only go into so much depth. For some reason over the course of putting together the devotional, I was reminded of the one man show I wrote in high school that ended up in our annual playwriting festival. I think long-form writing is becoming increasingly rare our blogs and twitter accounts are being turned into books, it is difficult to think about the large scope of a long story.

This is why I still have a lot of appreciation for books, newspapers and certain magazines, especially what Dave Eggers and McSweeny's is doing. In our age of awesome web-based information and well designed and maintained blogs (which I love, obviously), there are still some things that long-form, large and well-designed pieces can do that computer and web-based work cannot do. I love when people explore these limits, publishing boldly. It was fun experimenting a little with it and got me thinking about other things we can do to stretch the limits of the press in order to keep it as a relevant medium.

We definitely need to explore all of the Internet, but in doing so also recognize its limitations. I really do not see the irrelevancy of print, I just see a some laziness. It's easier to build a website than a well-designed printed publication. I'd love to see the universities stretch the limits of the printed word as well as publishing companies and the Church.

The Jimmy Fallon Crew is Killing It

2011-04-05T11:58:00.000-07:00

When you're in youth ministry, "dude check out this video" is a common phrase uttered toward you. I was sent this video through multiple streams and it has solidified my opinion that Jimmy Fallon's crew is killing it. Yet another performance of a lifetime.

Specific Love

2011-04-04T15:17:00.000-07:00

St. Paul writing to his apprentice Timothy says this about their ministry:

“The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.”

Plain as day, we are meant to love people as Christ has loved us. But love is a specific thing in the Bible, it is not some ambiguous notion that has to do with good feelings. We say this word “love” all the time and yet have trouble understanding it. Paul specifies: our love comes from a heart and a conscience that are both pure and good along with a faith that is honest. We are commanded to love, but love out of something, out of an abundance of love, out of a changed heart, out of a clear mind, out of a hope in God.

Love is not ambiguous, it is specific: “By this we know what love is,” St. John writes, “that Jesus Christ laid his life down for us and we ought to do the same for our brothers and sisters.” Love is not contrived or thought up and checked off the religious to-do list, love is an outpouring - so what is filling you up?

The Christian life operates so well this way because our well, our resource, our center is not an argument or doctrine, but a person. It is founded on a man who lived perfectly and died forgiving people who hated him. Our well is deep and our love is specifically self-sacrificing and generous.

Paul continues writing to his protege saying, “Certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered away into vain discussions…”

When we fix our eyes on “being right” instead of God making us right, we miss the gospel and get trapped into religious fundamentalism. But fundamentalism is not bad if our fundamental becomes the man Jesus. When our fundamental becomes the manifested love of Jesus who died for his enemies, our lives change and we love out of a clean heart, clear mind, and an honest hope in something much greater than ourselves.

The Future-Church Website and The Collected Puns of Mr. Freeze

2011-03-31T14:46:00.000-07:00

Some things are sent to you and you need to share them with the world before you get back to work. The world needs to know immediately. Two things were sent my way that you need to know about.

First, please witness Evangel Cathedral's website, which could be the website to take us into the era of TRON...or something worse, like TRON LEGACY. Either way, you need to click on that link and make sure your computer speakers are at full blast.

Secondly, observe "The Tragedy of Mr. Freeze," which is a perfect compilation for the Govenator's retirement party...

The Best Three Questions I've Ever Heard

2011-03-30T16:10:00.000-07:00

It was during a time when my faith was rolling along "fine" (which actually means it's dead) when someone gave me these three questions.

I tend to get skeptical when people tell me their relationship with God is fine and their "heart is in the right place" mainly because my faith experience is rarely "fine" and my heart is never in the right place.

"My faith is fine." Really? What god do you know? Mine is holy, intense, overly-compassionate and complex and yet totally simple, loving, and just. And everything is fine with him? Please tell me how you do it.

Friends, the scriptures are clear: there is a godly contentment and a godly discontentment.

In fact, sentences after St. Paul tells his protege Timothy that "there is great gain in godliness with contentment," he tells him to "fight the good fight of faith?" When was the last time you were content during a fight? If you've ever been in a fight, you'll remember that you were scared out of your mind, adrenaline rushing, and making split second decisions to save your life.

Sound like your Christianity?

The nation God chose to move through in the Old Testament is named "Israel," which literally translates as, "Those Who Wrestle With God." He named his nation whom he would work through a word filled with discontentment and tension. There is godly contentment and there is godly discontentment. It's just about being content in the right things. Being content in your knowledge of this God is missing a lot of who God is - on the other hand, being discontent in what God has provided for you is to be prideful.

So at the point in my life where these things were going screwy, someone gave me these questions, which are written all over my possessions and notebooks:

1) Do you have any real affection for God?

2) How do you spend your time and your money?

3) How do you view the world around you? (i.e. Do you see the world as everyone existing to serve you and your delight or do you see it as you existing to serve everyone and their delight?)

These questions changed my life because there's no escape from them. When we are honest with ourselves, we know if the word "affection" resonates when we think about God, or when our money and time are being spent without any consideration of others, and when we see that barista and that server and that employee and that spouse as existing to serve us rather than the other way around. We know. And it haunts us.

The beauty is that these are also the things Jesus talked about the most and therefore they are the very things that he is saving us to: affection for God, rearrangement or priorities and treasures, and an upside-down view of the world.

Not only that, but even better: he accomplished all of these perfectly, not just to show us, but to justify us before the one we answer to. And that brings me great contentment.

This Post's Sole Purpose is to Get You To Read Donald Miller

2011-03-29T08:20:00.000-07:00

I don't think there could have been a better time for a book to be released. I was a senior in high school when everybody started giving everybody a book called Blue Like Jazz. I can't really remember any of them telling me what exactly was so good about the book, but they just told me it was by a guy from Portland who had fresh language to add to the Christian experience.

It only took about twenty pages for me to be hooked.

Donald Miller wrote that book and it gave a Portland high school student everything he needed: a reason to keep the faith. What I love about Donald Miller is that he is able to put language to the loneliness of following Jesus and the tension that lies at the center of the faith. When I was a senior is high school, I began the process of cynicism many 18 year-olds go through. I had been dedicated to a large church for about four years and was ready to pick it apart. What I learned through reading Don's books was that 1) I am not the center of all existence 2) In all things, be honest and 3) Keeping with this Jesus thing is the way to true abundant life.

I learned a lot more, but those were the things that changed me at 18. Even moreso, the entire setting of Blue Like Jazz was my backyard. Huge sections of the book are placed blocks away from the home I grew up in - this was big because it increased the book's tangibility.

I bring all of this up to share with you a solid quote from one of his most recent blog posts:

"...it’s...tempting to hang a carrot in front of people telling them they have to 'become' in order to be used by God rather than admitting they actually 'become' while they are in the process of being used by God."

Read Don Miller books and his blog.

New Material

2011-03-28T16:14:00.000-07:00

My brother used to have a sign in his room. It wasn't anything fancy, just a piece of printer paper pinned to his wall with scotch tape. In black, bold Sharpie it read, "WRITE EVERY DAY."

I'm not sure if he stayed true to that self-command, but it was a good thing to have hanging around your room as a writer. My brother is a gifted writer, he has the unique ability of turning intangible experiences into words. When you cannot express yourself or your feelings in response to something, he can - and that's why he writes about movies. But what always impressed me about Scott is that he is a disciplined writer. He writes consistently, rarely wavering in his pace. When I started the blog four and a half years ago, he told me one thing: "Just don't give up on it. Keep posting, no matter what."

Being a disciplined writer came quickly for me because my work has always demanded that I produce new original written content. From sermons to the constant barrage of emails, writing well became a necessity very quickly.

What has become increasingly difficult, however, is getting my life to keep up with my writing.

This is what I mean:

When you write a sermon, you're often writing to an audience that hears you or someone like you quite a bit. They know you. So, the problem becomes generating fresh material with new wisdom. There's quite a bit a pressure, even if much of it is unwarranted.

Nevertheless, I find myself sometimes thinking: I'm just not reading enough books, or, I need to watch more TV to get better ideas or, I really need to go to more movies and subscribe to more magazines. And while all of these things contribute to my knowledge, they don't necessarily stir content for sermons. Why, you ask?

You see, the best sermons have two qualities: 1) they give the audience an accurate picture of God 2) The picture of God they get is supported by tangible examples from a shared reality between the speaker and his/her audience.

The worst sermons, then, show you nothing about God and have very little to do with real life.

Many times I find myself thinking I need to change things about my life to come up with fresh concepts to write or say when the reality is that I need a fresh vision of God to change my heart.

That, in the end, is why I pray, read the Bible, and read books; I do these things so that I might catch a renewed vision of the God of the universe. This doesn't mean that I have profound spiritual experiences on a weekly or even monthly basis. Actually, it means I have less existential experiences.

We do not necessarily see new things, read new things, or experience crazy new things when we enter life with God. Instead, the lens in which we see all things has been forever changed. We don't need the things that we say to be changed, we need our hearts to be changed. Because then, out of the abundance of our hearts our mouths speak.

I love sermons and I love the challenge of writing every day because they both keep me desiring fresh pictures of God. The "new material" I need is not a thought or belief, but a heart. And that won't change my circumstances, it'll change me.

Franklin Comes Alive

2011-03-23T11:40:00.001-07:00

Great record store find yesterday. You'll only get this if you laughed at the title or when I say: It ain't easy bein' white...

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Writing Music

2011-03-22T17:57:00.000-07:00

This sentence has five words. Here are five more words. Five-word sentences are fine. But several together become monotonous. Listen to what is happening. The writing is getting boring. The sound of it drones. It’s like a stuck record. The ear demands some variety. Now listen. I vary the sentence length, and I create music. Music. The writing sings. It has a pleasant rhythm, a lilt, a harmony. I use short sentences. And I use sentences of medium length. And sometimes, when I am sure the reader is rested, I will engage him with a sentence of considerable length, a sentence that burns with energy and builds with all the impetus of a crescendo, the roll of the drums, the crash of the cymbals-sounds that say listen to this, it is important.So write with a combination of short, medium, and long sentences. Create a sound that pleases the reader’s ear. Don’t just write words. Write music.
-Roy Clark, Writing Tools

HT: Take Your Vitamin Z

This Makes March Madness Look Calm

2011-03-21T11:27:00.000-07:00

My love for the game of basketball just transcended national and international borders:

Of

2011-03-19T12:59:00.000-07:00

Prepositions are extremely important. How 8th grade English teacher was that first sentence? Doesn't make it less true, though.

Being over the table is very different from being under the table. Just like being with your dog is very different than being against your dog. Or placing your drink over the piece of paper is very different from placing your drink in the piece of paper. Those little prepositions change quite a bit of meaning.

Subtle difference. Super important.

Why are prepositions so important? Because they give us a location, they tell us where one thing is in relationship to the other thing.

And so, one of the better things I have done regarding studying the Bible is to notice prepositions in the text.

You'll notice after a simple word study and search, that God talks a ton about being the "Lord of______" but very rarely talks about being the "Lord over_______."

In fact, the difference is staggering. In our best translations we see God using "Lord of_____" about 35 times depending on translation and only using "Lord over_____" only one time ("over Israel").

Well, what's the difference of being "Lord of" something and the "Lord over" something?

Everything.

To be over something is to dominate. Something God certainly could do. But the preposition "of" is how he describes himself. "Of" is a preposition that expresses the relationship between a part and a whole; the word "of" indicates an association of belonging between two separate entities. It tells us that one is a part of the other.

The days of the week.

The sleeve of his coat.

The back of her neck.

This small, seemingly insignificant word, is all about belonging.

To be Lord over the nations tells us that he is domineering and above us. To be Lord of the nations says that he is with, a part, in relationship alongside of us, but still very much doing his part: which is to be "Lord." He is not out of place when on earth, but he's still in charge.

This is why the Christian God is so different. He came to the nations, to the earth as man and lived among us. He, for a while, belonged. He breathed our air and made the bold statement: I am with you.

God became a part of the story of the earth and yet still kept his identity as Lord. Jesus' teachings were all rooted in this fact that he was Lord of the Sabbath, Lord of Hosts, Lord of Lords, King of Kings, and the Light of the World.

He is the Lord that sits alongside people and yet remains the true Lord, the King. He is the Lord of all. And yet, is he the Lord of you?

A Church For The World

2011-03-18T07:39:00.000-07:00

"The Church is her true self only when she exists for humanity...She must take her part in the social life of the world, not lording it over men, but helping and serving them. She must tell men, whatever their calling, what it means to live in Christ: to exist for others."
-Dietrich Bonhoeffer

The effort to separate the Church from the world is a delicate balance. Biblically, we are "called out" and "separate" from the normal flow of human life. And yet, as Tim Keller would put it, "The citizens of heaven are the greatest citizens of earth." We are separate, yet essentially a part of our cities.

If we are truly to exist for others, should it be so much so that we seek their (the world's) peace over our peace? Their comfort over ours? Their prosperity over ours? Is this not what Christ has done for us?

"For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich." - 2 Corinthians 8:9

Maybe that's why the Israelites were instructed to seek the peace and prosperity of others in order to find it themselves - maybe it was a preview of what was to come to a barn in Bethlehem:

"Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” - Jeremiah 29:7

In giving all that we have, we are promised that we will gain our souls. If we are pouring out, we are promised to be filled. If we give, we are promised to receive. The Christian life is that upside-down.

You Know You're Working With Great People When...

2011-03-16T11:27:00.001-07:00

Stuff like this appears on the window to your office.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Martin Bashir Gets All Bashir on Rob Bell

2011-03-15T18:28:00.000-07:00

I think I like this because Bashir doesn't like evasive answers. So when people give him evasive answers, he gets a little steamed.

The Heart of Darkness

2011-03-15T07:58:00.000-07:00

I used to think I understood the Advent Scripture: "The people in darkness have seen a great light!" But upon re-reading the account of Ernest Shackleton, I am once again humbled.

Shackleton and his crew were a part of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. One of his final expeditions was the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, which was an attempt to cross the continent of Antarctica by way of land.

Their ship, the Endurance, was caught in polar ice and eventually crushed after his team was unable to free it. The men made their way across the continent for months and took to make-shift camps until preparing a rescue operation which consisted of Shackleton leading open-boats to the coast to South Georgia to gather rescue resources. It is still held that everyone survived.

Dr. Timothy Keller brings this story to life in his second to last chapter of King's Cross. Keller says that Shackleton's biographers all claim that through every hardship of the Endurance Expedition - which included starvation, arctic temperatures, and blistering wind - the most horrific part of the journey was the polar darkness.

The biographer's claim that there is nothing more desolate and depressing than the arctic night, which can last for months.

It is such deep darkness, so absent from the sun, that men unfamiliar with it have gone insane. Not only can you not move forward, but you cannot see yourself at all. Not a hand in front of your face. For months.

Keller describes it like this:

"You have no direction...You don't know what you look like. You may as well have no identity….Physical darkness brings disorientation."

This is exactly like metaphysical or spiritual darkness, says Keller.

Why were the "people in darkness" so happy to see a great light? It gave them direction. It gave them identity. It gave them orientation, a place in which to orbit their life around.

And the "great light" that the prophet speaks of? Jesus. On the cross, it was Christ who drank the darkness of God's wrathful absence so that we might have direction, identity, and orientation. Now, with eyes fixed on Him, we not only see the light, but by that very light we see all things.

A Quick Word About Those Millionaires

2011-03-14T15:58:00.000-07:00

So it seems as though everyone is linking to Fidelity's study of millionaires that concluded 42% of millionaires do not consider themselves wealthy. The survey questioned 1,000 millionaires. The number the millionaires felt would make them wealthy would be $7.5 million. Roughly. Not 7.4. Ok, never mind.

It seems to me as though we're missing an interpretation. Might I add to the noise?

The links and short articles pointing to the study basically cite the sources and statistics and say something like, "poor millionaires" or "somebody call the wambulence" or "maybe we should offer them a Bud Crieser."

But where does that interpretation come from? How free are you from the same desire those millionaires have?

You see, at the root of this survey is lust or greed: it is the desire for more, the just-the-next-thing-and-then-I'll-be-fine mentality. If we're honest with ourselves, are we not suffering from the same thing? I know I am. I am constantly finding my brain wonder from level to level. Once I finish school, once I get into grad-school, once I get noticed by someone, once I get enough money, etc, etc, etc...

This study should not be so shocking. Human nature is to desire more. Money complicates this desire and feeds it.

But Christianity has this great virtue called, "godly contentment." And of course the theologian Sheryl Crow sums it up the best: "It's not having what you want, It's wanting what you've got." I'm not old by any sense, but I have learned that no matter where I get to, what level I rise to financially, I'll always want more and believe that in having more I'll be happier. But sometimes we need to listen to the wisdom of St. Biggie: "Mo' money, mo' problems."

Also, can we realize that 58% of the millionaires did consider themselves wealthy? Maybe Sheryl is one of them...

Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney Get Along

2011-03-14T13:06:00.000-07:00

Again, people, this is precisely what the Internet is for. MJ and McCartney doing dishes somewhere.

HT: Twenty-Two Words

A Summary of All Good and Evil

2011-03-13T21:19:00.000-07:00

Perhaps the most famous line in Genesis is in chapter 50, verse 20 where Joseph says to his brothers: "As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today."

Beautiful. What was meant for evil is actually being used for the best possible good of everyone. We tend to use that verse to make us feel better about crappy things that happen. Like earthquakes. But sometimes that verse isn't enough. You read words of survivors and then you read those and you think, Ugh, I don't know about that. Is it that simple? Ok, maybe you don't, but I certainly do.

But what if it was bigger than that? When I look at that verse, I see that Joseph said it. However, placing that sentence in the greater Biblical narrative, I see the Greater Joseph, Jesus Christ, saying that exact line at the conclusion of all things or....right now.

Place those same words on the lips of Christ: "As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today."

Fits pretty well, huh? Evil was done to Jesus. Injustice was done to Jesus. Jesus lived and died surrounded by evil. And yet...He raises and it is very good news indeed.

So many people ask, "Why did God let this world go to crap?" But what if it wasn't going to crap? What if our definitions of "alive" and "good" and "evil" are elementary and only half-correct? What if God is actually in control?

It doesn't seem like it. It really doesn't, does it? I cannot look at some pictures. My stomach hurts when I read some of the words of people suffering through the world. Evil is everywhere and I seem to have no one to blame but the One in "control." My instinct is that, when I review the history of the world, there is more punishment and crime than any world could handle. My instinct says that there is only evil.

But when we think we know that to be untrue. There is beauty and brokenness, righteousness and wickedness, good and evil. My idea is this: instead of using this verse to explain evil (something we love to try our hand at), could it be used in a greater way - to comfort us amidst evil?

Listen to His words, the Greater Joseph, once again and in context:

"Do not fear...you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones." Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.

Let your fear subside as you let Him comfort and speak kindly.

C.S. Lewis is More Popular Than Ever

2011-03-12T10:42:00.000-08:00

And that could be a bad thing.

Last week, the New York Times ran a story about HarperOne's new C.S. Lewis Bible, which I am a tad wary about.

Mark Oppenheimer, who wrote the story, presents the new Bible with heavy skepticism, taking every opportunity to slight Lewis, including a mis-placed and inconsistent rebuke of Lewis's famous "Liar, Lunatic, Lord" apologetic. All of that aside, I think Oppenheimer brings up a more important idea: Lewis is being sold as a personality cult.

The C.S. Lewis Bible is a simple idea: publish a Bible and throw Lewis quotes from both his published and unpublished works next to verses or sections of Scripture. It's somewhat helpful and I really don't have much against it. Harper is a publishing company that makes most of their money off of the 150,000 Mere Christianity copies they sell every year - they're making another C.S. Lewis buck. I get that.

But there is still a problem.

I get worried about using quotes that are put in places Lewis never intended them to go. It's like putting just "Carry That Weight" on the Best of the Beatles album; It wasn't meant to go there, it was meant to be one piece of the greater work called Abbey Road. And it needs to stay there. In fact, it doesn't really make sense unless it is there.

People will buy this Bible and read more of the Bible and Lewis and that's great. But they won't necissarily get either in its proper context. For example, many people mis-read and mis-interpret Lewis (like many Christian thinkers) by taking a single quote out of an entire work. Lewis is a brilliant writer because his books tell stories, make arguments, and build theologies over an entire piece.

My worry is that people will continue to say, "I love C.S. Lewis," when they really love the idea of C.S. Lewis from the quotes they get from their Twitter feed or C.S. Lewis Bible. This is not the end of the world or the end of Lewis by any means, I just don't think it's very helpful for readers of the Bible or of Lewis.

Lewis wrote great, complete books and we should read them, not cut them up and sell them in different packages.

I Actually Learned Something in California

2011-03-11T18:51:00.000-08:00

This past week was spent in sunny, 70+ degree California for the Catalyst West Conference in Irvine. The conference was great, but the "extra-curricular activities" could have been what made it for me. I laughed really hard, I spoke deeply with friends about the things of God and His church, and I got to hear peoples' heart for the world.

I was also able to see my brother in his element, Hollywood. Please make sure you read his work around all the movies he sees. Being where he is, it's cool to see his work improve and get noticed more.

On Thursday, I was able to meet with the leadership of David C. Cook publishing and hear their vision for books and the future of making things public. They were gracious people and very affirming. I'm not sure where that relationship will go, but I benefited greatly from the hour and a half I spent with the Cook team.

But I must say, Joy Dombrow, who was with us on the trip, put it best in her summary of learnings which she showed us on the plane ride home from the conference:

"The path of faithfulness is preeminent, even if it leads to a life of perceived mediocrity instead of public prominence."

That is huge. And extremely well written. (By the way, if you want more gems like that, you should read Joy's blog).

I got tons and tons of great information and awesome inspirational talks through the conference, but the one word that was driven home to me was faithfulness. God does not call us to fame, but faithfulness. On the surface of this, we think it to be boring. But through the testimonies of a few men at the conference as well as some ministry experience under your belt, you tend to see it differently: being faithful is extremely difficult.

Because at the end of the day, I want a leg up, I want people to recognize me, and I want to be brought into some type of societal spotlight where people acknowledge me. And I in my weakness, I will do whatever it takes to get there: tell half-truths, not mention some things, speak more than listen, etc.

This past week I've been hit with the reality that Jesus, who had the deserved spotlight, gave that up and became a no-one, a man of sorrows, a carpenter's son from a small town in order that I might get the Best Light shining on me. Not the light from the world, but the Light of the World.

Because Jesus stepped away from the light into utter darkness, I am in the Light. And while I may go through my whole life without the limelight, I will not go another day without the True Light.

Being faithful to that reality and serving God through it is way more beneficial that letting the masses tell you who you are. No matter the cost.

Catalyst West 2011 from Willamette Christian Church on Vimeo.

Setting A New Bar For Announcement Videos

2011-02-28T13:56:00.001-08:00

I tend to take pride in my work (you know, the healthy kind of pride) and it doesn't stop when it comes to making announcement videos. Aaron and I are in a constant journey to make the most compelling and informative announcement video the world has ever seen. It's a hefty task, but somebody needs to do it. This one is our best yet because it features half-court shots, which is one of my favorite things ever.

Video Announcements // February 27, 2011 from Willamette Christian Church on Vimeo.

Dunk Contest, 1987

2011-02-28T12:55:00.001-08:00

When it was about the dunk and not the show (click on for actual size):

Fear, Power, and Love in the Midst of a Storm

2011-02-25T11:28:00.000-08:00

Jesus calms a storm of some sort in all four gospels. In three of the accounts, the disciples are afraid during the storm, but terrified after the storm in calmed. These are two different words, the second being a much stronger fear.

Why? We can understand the fear during a storm, but after "there was a great calm," the disciples in the boat become terrified - it doesn't add up. There is a hint in Mark's account when the men ask one another, "Who then is this, that even wind and sea obey him?"

They were struck with such great fear because they realized that Jesus was more frightening than the storm.

The storm is scary, but you can manage it in many ways: adjust the sails, bail out water, move and shift weight. The fishermen had survived storms before by just adjusting and bowing to the threat of Nature.

But you cannot manage Jesus. He demonstrated in calming the storm, that he had power and dominion over it. If he can make a stormy sea smooth as glass, what else is this guy capable of?

Jesus is unmanageable. His power is limitless.

Seemingly, our storms (metaphorically and literally) have infinite power to wreck our voyage. But perhaps the more frightening reality is that there is a Master of the Storm.

Or not?

What the disciples spent the rest of their lives doing was discovering that the storm doesn't love them, God does. And when you have the option to bow to nature or bow to God, the option is clear: go with Love. So even though Jesus' power is limitless, his love is as well.

"His power is unbounded, but so are his wisdom and his love."
-Dr. Timothy Keller, King's Cross pg. 54

So often people criticize belief in God because they can't believe the magnitude of God's power matched with what they see of this world (death, disease, disasters). How can he allow it? What they forget is that equal with his mighty power to instigate good and allow evil, is his Mighty Love and Wisdom. He not only knows better, he loves better.

We know his love to be limitless because we see the historical event of Jesus coming into the storm of humanity, involving himself with suffering and going through the destruction of the cross in order to bring us the peace and still waters of a life in God's acceptance. And that is the love that should cast out fear.

I Still Have No Idea What She Meant

2011-02-22T13:43:00.000-08:00

SHE: "Would you like chips with your sandwich?"

ME: "Um, sure, I'll take some Cheetos."

SHE: "Oh, one of those days huh?"

ME: "I guess..."

There Is No Try

2011-02-21T17:35:00.000-08:00

Remember Yoda before he was completely defamed by CGI? He was wise, wasn't he? One of his best lines (perhaps THE best line) came in the heart of Luke's struggle to grasp The Force:

"Do or do not. There is no try."

This small motivational phrase gave Luke the gusto to lift his fallen X-Wing out from the swamps of Dagobah by simply, but profoundly, The Force. Truly inspirational. And the the junior higher witnessing such an event? Life changing, to say the least.

I seem to meet a lot of people who have "tried Christianity" and decided it wasn't for them. Many went through high school "trying" it and found it to be either 1) existentially dissatisfying or 2) intellectually incredible (meaning what that word is supposed to mean: not credible). These are good grounds to dismiss a worldview, but I'm not completely convinced these triers have grasped the claims of Jesus.

Because they were failed in those two areas, they become despondent and move to a noncommittal philosophical worldview that helps them make sense of some things in their life (self-view, identity, sexuality, etc). Some float through this non-commitment for some time.

I've noticed one thing with "trying out" Christianity for a season: it's impossible.

You see, you're allowed to try out religious Christianity or religion, but when it comes to Biblical, orthodox Christianity, it won't let you try it out. You're in or you're out. There is no try.

Since religion is all about accomplishing moral duty through performing laws, you can try that for a while and fail and then quit; but Jesus was looking for more than performance.

By a simple examination of the rhetorical content of God's askings in the Bible we can see that he's not asking for simple action points and obedience or pillars of behavior - He's asking for our lives. Nothing less.

How do you "try out" giving away your whole life? How do you "give a shot" at giving up everything (Your past, present and future, your dreams and your own mind)?

The people who try Christianity end up trying the cultural religious fluff that has been placed around it because they're too fearful to give everything to Christ. Indeed, this is a frightening ask of God.

And yet maybe in the failure of trying we are only able to see its own inherent weakness. How about we let Lewis finish it?

"Now we cannot...discover our failure to keep God's law except by trying our very hardest (and then failing). Unless we really try, whatever we say there will always be at the back of our minds the idea that if we try harder next time we shall succeed in being completely good. Thus, in one sense, the road back to God is a road of moral effort, of trying harder and harder. But in another sense it is not trying that is ever going to bring us home. All this trying leads up to the vital moment at which you turn to God and say, 'You must do this. I can't.'"

-C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

At the center of "accepting Christianity" is total surrender. At first, a seemingly weak action, but in the end it will be much more life-giving than trying to be good.

Irritating One Another to Love

2011-02-16T10:24:00.000-08:00

After studying ancient Greek for a year and reading the Bible for close to 10 years, I often find myself honing in on one word and asking myself, What else could that word mean?

Such a thing happened when I came upon this very famous verse out of the book of Hebrews: "And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works..."

What does it mean to "stir up one another?" Because while I don't really know what that means, I do know that I want to figure it out because it sounds like the New Testament is saying that this is one smart way to make loving, good-working people. And who doesn't want more of that?

Upon investigating this Greek phrase, you find one word: παροξυσμός (paroxysmos), which has two seemingly different meanings. One leans toward encouraging or spurring encouragements, but the other meaning (and more commonly used in other Koine Greek texts) is most accurately translated to "irritating."

Can I quote the Dictionary of Biblical Languages? I thought so...

"sharp contention implying exasperation."

So, this gets a richer meaning does it not? The charge becomes clear: Do we have people in our lives who are friendly to us? Or do we have people who irritate us correctly? People who say things we know are right and good, but it's tough to hear? We need people in our lives who we trust that give us the type of love we need and not always the type of love we want. They are very different sometimes.

Love is nothing like tolerance, but it is often correcting, which is irritating to the one receiving it. We do not see the danger of playing in the street as a child, but we had people (parents) who cared enough to tell us that it was deadly.

In the same way, we need those seemingly irritating voices that demolish our pride and join with God in the renewal of our hearts.

Are You a Sinner? There's an app for that...

2011-02-10T08:55:00.000-08:00

The Catholic Church has approved this iPhone app that lets you track your sins. Hm.

The Confession app is about $2 on iTunes and is described by the church as the "perfect aid." Was Jesus not enough? Is community not enough?

Look, I love my Catholic brothers; I'm convinced that had I not grown up around them I would not be as excited about my God as I am today. But, c'mon! An app that lets you track your sins? Sure, this might be convenient, but I'm not sure it's totally helpful at all. I guess it's perfect for the religious person, but I'm not really into that whole thing. I want to know my God, not just my sins I committed or didn't commit every week. What about you?

Duty Into Choice

2011-02-09T13:12:00.000-08:00

I've been able to do quite a bit of study on freedom and what freedom looks like in the Christian life because of my next couple of sermons. I'm excited to preach some of my findings at Community of Faith Lutheran Church this Sunday as well as work some of it out for the youth next Wednesday night.

In studying, I have read and re-read a lot of work on freedom and I ended up actually finding a beautiful hymn I have never heard sung or read, but found its words to be so accurate of what freedom in Christ looks like.

The hymn is "Love Constrained to Obedience," by William Cowper and is rich with meaning. The opening stanzas read like this:

No strength of nature can suffice
To serve the Lord aright:
And what she has she misapplies,
For want of clearer light.

How long beneath the law I lay
In bondage and distress;
I toll'd the precept to obey,
But toil'd without success.

And he closes like this…

To see the law by Christ fulfilled
And hear His pardoning voice,
Changes a slave into a child,
And duty into choice.

For all of the freedom found in the gospel, Cowper hones in on the reality: We find freedom when we see that we are actually serving a master who served us first with his whole life and death. This must change the way in which you see Him and His ways. Because of what He has done, our heart's desire shifts.

A Baseball Locker Room in 1958

2011-02-08T13:18:00.000-08:00

HT: The SI Vault

Another Side of Detroit

2011-02-07T22:38:00.000-08:00

Do not get me wrong, that Super Bowl advertisement Chrysler put together with Eminem was flat-out awesome. Smooth. Cool. No gimmicks. I loved the rhetorical aspects of it.

But let's remember that Detroit is not glamorous. The city, as you can see from this gallery, is literally (and I use that word carefully) in ruins and it desperately needs help. Perhaps Chrysler will be part of that, who knows?

I was visiting my dad in Michigan just a month ago and seeing some of the houses as we drove out of Detroit was like something out of McCarthy. My heart breaks for this city and I'm not sure why. I think it has one of the most interesting stories of any American metropolis and it's difficult for me to believe that this is the end. Let's hope not.

Make sure to see the other haunting pictures over at Retronaut.

Do Something With Your Life!

2011-02-07T10:23:00.000-08:00

"Our greatest fear should not be that we won't succeed, but that we will succeed at something that doesn't matter."
-Dwight L. Moody

The worst question you get as a senior in high school is only bad because it's so heavily repeated: "What are you going to do after you graduate?" That question got so annoying I found a way to answer it in four words.

I now work with high school students and I can see the pressure building up on them: coaches, teachers, parents, and pastors lay expectation after expectation on them in hopes that they'll actually do something with their life.

But I'm finding that I don't really worry about my students' accomplishments all that much. I hope for them to succeed, but I'm not really banking on that. What I'm actually worried about is that whatever they end up doing will end up not mattering to the world.

I want these kids to go into business. I want them to play sports. I want them to go to college or not go to college. I want them to work for a living. I want them to get jobs they love. I want them to get married. I want them to raise kids and I want their kids to have the opportunities they had.

But so much of life is not about what you do, but how you end up doing it.

Moody is hinting at something; In the end, business is not about making money, it's about serving society. And sports is not about celebrity, it's about experiencing the wonder of corporate play and building character. Making art is not about the artist, but about making the world aware of the unspeakable. And raising kids is not about fulfilling your dreams, it's about their hearts and future adulthood.

I don't give students another thing to be successful at, I give them the gospel, which redefines success.

Now with Christ, you can do anything you want; you just need to make sure you're doing it in relationship to Him. Therefore, anything you do - from waiting tables to leading a company - can be done as St. Paul said, "for the glory of God." You can do a lot of work for Christ, but it's more about doing work in Christ. I have learned these things to be quite different.

Jesus is not another thing in your life to be "good at," but rather He is the way to the rest of your life. The gospel makes things matter. Success is no longer defined as being on top and having everyone serve you, it now becomes entirely about serving all people.

Not Interested In Blessings

2011-02-04T14:06:00.000-08:00

The blessings of God are wonderful, but it's surprising how many Saints and fathers of the faith were unimpressed with blessings when God's presence was not with them.

My friend Alex reminded me of this video of Dr. David Martin Lloyd-Jones preaching from his sermon "How Revival Comes," which was a part of a larger series that ended up being published in book form. He's speaking from Exodus 33 where the Israelites refuse to move on without God's presence, even when he offers them success and material well-being. In his sermon, "The Doctor" as Lloyd-Jones was called, separates the blessings of God from God himself:

"What is the value of Canaan? What is the value of milk and honey? What is the value of having possessions, if God was not with them? They saw that the realisation of the presence of God, having his fellowship and company, was infinitely more important than everything else."
-Dr. David Martin Lloyd-Jones, Revival, p. 158.

The Doctor quotes two key verses and could have quoted a hundred more:

"It is for thee I cry out. As the deer pants for water, so my soul pants after thee, O God." says the songwriter of Psalm 42:1.

St. Paul begs: "That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings."

Blessings are not enough for these men, it is God they desire. In fact, they welcome any type of circumstance or state of being as long as they get God and God alone. Perhaps we are not connecting with God because we're so attached to his blessings.

When you enjoy these blessings, you're on to something so keep enjoying what he gives, just make sure you don't end there because above them lies the Greatest Blessing you could experience: Him.

Returning the Compliment

2011-02-03T20:11:00.000-08:00

Imagine a young groom on his wedding day, making promises to his bride. He tells her that he desires her and vows to make it his life's project to protect her and love her well in order that they may together experience the wonder of romance.

Now imagine you see this groom one month after his wedding day and ask him, "How is your wife? Are you enjoying marriage?" And he replies to you, "I'm not happy. During the first two weeks, everything was wonderful, but I'm not sure I'm in love anymore." After inquiring more about his problem, you come to find out that he rarely speaks to his wife, he never spends time with her, and he hasn't really paid attention to the details of her life since they have been wed.

After he says all of these things he ends with this line: "I just don't feel like I'm in love with her anymore. There's no connection."

The sensible person thinks the groom to be crazy. If you spend no time with your wife and never speak to her and pay absolutely no attention to the details of her life, the direct result will be a loss of romantic connection, you think. Duh, right?

Or not.

When I examine the language I have used with God in the past, it has certainly at times been this absurd.

We make huge commitments to Him based on the blessings he has shown us and we invite him into our lives (an absurdity when you think about it; it makes so much of us) saying, "I love you, Lord and I want life with you!"

And then he tells you what life with him looks like. Life with God is not one of performance, where we act out certain rituals to please him, life with this God is about a relationship.

So a man walks up to Jesus and says, "What's the greatest commandment?" And Jesus responds saying, "The Lord is One God, and you shall love him with all of your heart and soul and mind and strength. This is the greatest commandment."

Jesus sets us straight: our command is not to do something, but it's to know someone.

But in order to know someone, you must do things. There is no knowing without doing. You must learn about them, you must speak to them, and you must commit time to them or else you will not know them.

We absolutely know this to be true with our friends, but why do we think God is any different? I would say that we think it's different because we really don't know Him. We don't understand just how personal it gets with this God.

"The worst we have done to God is to leave Him alone - why can't He return the compliment?"
-C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain, pg. 51

Getting to know another person takes some work and understanding God is similar. The difference is that getting to know God will take more than you may think - He promises that - but guess what? The benefits of knowing this One are much greater than the benefits of your closest companion.

Into the Wild

2011-01-31T13:47:00.000-08:00

In Christian ministry, one of the greatest struggles I hear from the faithful is in "connecting with God." Many times, honest people sit in my office or over the table at lunch and speak to me about how they don't feel God or feel like they're not connecting with Him in any significant way. This always makes my heart sink.

As an aside, many people have absurd expectations for communion with God and think that, as a pastor, I experience some high level of supernatural revelation constantly. If I have not been clear enough in my tone, this is simply not the case. But we were made to be in communion with God; knowing him and feeling his love, presence, and kindness. So how do I answer these people?

Obviously it's a pretty case by case thing, but there tends to be one common place where everyone has the opportunity to meet this everlasting, all-powerful, fully-loving God. And it's a place where not many want to go, where people are hesitant to travel to. In fact, this place tends to be a place we avoid at all costs.

That place is the Wild.

I'm not talking about the forest and I'm not talking about a place filled with the freshness of life and biological potential and I'm certainly not speaking literally. I'm talking about a Wild of Biblical proportions, perhaps better thought of as the desert.

The Wild is unknown. The Wild is bare. The Wild is life-taking. The Wild is unprotected.

It's the place you would least expect to meet a God and that's exactly why it is the place where you meet this God.

It's where Abraham met Him, it's where Jacob wrestled with Him, it's where Moses got a name for Him and it's where the entire nation of Israel finally found Him. The only way to know that God is all you need is when God is all that you've got.

This project of 20th/21st century first-world life called America fights against this with everything its got. We reject the Wild because the Wild is uncomfortable, the Wild is unknown, and most frightening: the Wild strips us down to our very core and dries up our resources. We spend our lives building houses, making money, and putting on a face that will let the world know that we are not ever going into the Wild because it will kill us. But in all actuality, it just might save us.

That's why it shouldn't be such a shock to know that the Good News begins not in a major metropolis and not with a King naming his prince to be an heir to the throne, but it starts with,

"The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight."

You want to connect with this God? Next time you're sent to the Wild, spend less time looking to find yourself and more time looking for Him. It'll still be frightening, perhaps more frightening than your last trip there, but you might just come back knowing someone who has mastered such a place as the Wild.

True Christians

2011-01-28T12:13:00.000-08:00

While the world and history are filled with those who use the name of Christ or Christian to do unspeakable things, there are those who embrace the deepest piece of the ancient faith - that our centerpiece and cornerstone is not dogma, but a person - and that changes everything.

The exclusive "truth" of Christianity is not that there exists plural "truths" to tell the world in order to ostracize and demean others who do not obey them, but rather a singular Truth found in the person and work of Jesus Christ, which is open for all to know:

"Why would such an exclusive belief system lead to behavior that was so open to others? It was because Christians had within their belief system the strongest possible resource for practicing sacrificial service, generosity, and peace-making. At the very heart of their view of reality was a man who died for his enemies, praying for their forgiveness."
-Tim Keller, The Reason for God, p. 20

Self-proclaimed "Christians" don't always get this right and I am certainly in the fight to understand it all, but when they have (often when under heavy persecution), the known world changes.

Four Weeks in Psalms

2011-01-21T10:29:00.000-08:00

For the next four weeks, I have the privilege of preaching at Community of Faith Lutheran Church. I've been blessed with a great relationship with this congregation that allows me to preach whatever I decide when they ask me to come in. Over the next four Sundays, I'll be taking them through four different Psalms and asking the question, Where is Christ in these songs? It'll be the first time I preach through a good chunk of Psalms.

I begin each day with a Psalm and then some other readings. I have certainly read every Psalm more than twice and I find immense satisfaction in the words of the ancient songwriters. But for years I have always thought that the purpose of the Psalms was solely aesthetic. I believed that there was very little room for Biblical exegesis and exhortation.

And then this:

"The delightful study of the Psalms has yielded me boundless profit and ever-growing pleasure; common gratitude constrains me to communicate to others a portion of the benefit, with the prayer that it may induce them to search further for themselves." - from "Preface," Charles Haddon Spurgeon, The Treasury of David: An Original Exposition of the Book of Psalms.

After reading that, I immediately thought of Lewis who, in his introduction to Reflections on the Psalms, wrote against the preaching and studying of a Psalm but directly after that breaks down Parallelism, Repetition, and Meter in Biblical songs. He could not help himself.

I've rested with the idea that we are actually to do both with the Psalms - we must enjoy them and study them, listen and unpack them. We do this because they are beautiful and after admiration comes examination. After we recognize something as beautiful it is often the task of the onlooker to say, "Why is that so beautiful? Why do I enjoy that? Why does that satisfy?"

My last couple of days have been looking into that question: What makes these Psalms so right? So beautiful? I'm excited to share them with the church.

Alan Hirsch On So Many Things

2011-01-13T19:14:00.000-08:00

Too Free

2011-01-07T11:55:00.000-08:00

"Where did the self-pity come from? The inordinate volume of it? By almost any standard, she held a luxurious life. She had all day every day to figure out some decent and satisfying way to live, and yet all she ever seemed to get for all her choices and all her freedom was more miserable...she pitied herself for being so free."

-FREEDOM by Jonathan Franzen, p. 181

Regarding the Toilets in O'Hare

2011-01-04T21:11:00.000-08:00

It's always alarming when you hear the F word yelled from the stall next to you in the Chicago airport. It was a moment for investigation.

I flushed my toilet and walked out to see if he had emerged. His stall door was open and he was looking in the toilet when he craned his head back toward me. Another alarming thing is realizing that you're staring at another man in a stall. He ended his confused/angry face by awkwardly smiling at me and saying this:

"I dropped my cell phone in the toilet."

My smile warranted him to go on as I watched him gingerly handle his dripping Blackberry.

"I thought these toilets were so freakin' weird; I had to take a picture of 'em to…" he sort of trailed off when I interrupted him with a generous laugh and an "Oh." He swore again to comfort himself.

The toilets at the O'Hare Airport in Chicago, IL are nothing entirely alien. They look like any other toilet, except for the fact that they have plastic wrapping around the seat which automatically changes out upon your entering of the stall. It's a somewhat uninspiring sanitation effort. I suppose the most fascinating thing about it all is that it does say "thank you" on the screen when you're done, but is that picture worthy?

"Sorry about that, man," I finally said.

"It's a business phone, I can get another. I just kind of need it for the road," he replied. We both let a silence hang in the air after he said that and then he broke it by saying, "Weird toilets though, right?"

"Yeah," I said.

I then had a strange urge to help him in some way, maybe give him my phone or something as I watched him take out the battery and rub it dry with his coat, a certainly sad sight. I want to give him some sort of assistance, but what can one do for a man who drops his cell phone in the toilet? I'm only one man...

I surrendered to the sinks and washed my hands. As I left, a tall man walked in to a stall next to the exit. I heard him chuckle to himself as the toilet made its rotation noise.

Not worth it, buddy.

Conquered Words: 2010

2010-12-30T12:53:00.000-08:00

This is it!

My first year of cataloging books that I read each month is over and I am now forced to do a year review of my achievements. Let me say right off the bat that all of this "Conquered Words" business is more for me than you, my dear reader. But you're so vain, you probably think this post is about you (siiinnnggg it wiiiith meeee).

Ok. To business then.

I read 24 books this year totaling up to 7,563 pages. Seeing as there are certain books on the list (3 to be exact) that I did not read every word of, I would say I read close to 7,000 pages. That would bring it in to an average of 315.13 pages per book. Furthermore with the math game, it would mean I read a clean average of 2 books and just over 630 pages a month, which certainly didn't happen seeing as I go through spurts. For example, in July alone I read 5 books, but I didn't complete or read much at all in the month of May (Sasquatch + wedding + finishing college = no time to read).

Figuring all of this out made me realize a couple of things. Firstly, I am a terrible mathematician. Secondly, I suppose I read quite a bit. I mean, it's one thing to be moving from month to month and reading one book or two books and thinking that all is well and dandy, but it's another thing entirely to look at the whole year and realize most of your life was dedicated to books (I smell a moral quandary!).

I feel as though I am also obliged to tell you the best books I read this year. You might notice in each month that it is rare that I hate books. That's simply because I don't spend my time reading crappy books, duh. I read good books and I mostly read books that have stood some sort of test, whether it be time or criticism and maybe Oprah (KIDDING YOU GUYS).

These, then, are my favorite books I read in 2010 in no particular order:

Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann was simply and tremendously beautiful. McCann's characters were as poetic as his language and his metaphors and motifs somehow jumped out without being entirely obvious. It was just 300 pages of sheer delight and sometimes that's all you need.

Columbine by David Cullen did not only give me insight to the events of the horrific school shooting of 1999, but it gave a very complete picture of teenage life and high school politics. Cullen's plain and sometimes harsh language brought out the intense nature of the events. With thrilling pace, the book didn't lose its heart. It is page turning, but emotional and heartfelt mainly because everything is so brutally true.

Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do by Michael J. Sandel is a book I would like a lot of freshman in college to read, but unfortunately they might have to be forced to do so. Sandel not only gives the reader a solid history of philosophical justice, but his concluding arguments are committed and keen. This book is rhetorically masterful too as I would find it near impossible for many to read the entire book and come up disagreeing with Sandel's assertions. He recognizes the inescapable morality in politics/justice and calls for a higher view of what it means to be a citizen in an American society. Plainly, the book is well freaking done.

The Autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr., which was edited and published by Clayborne Carlson certainly paints MLK to be the epic character he is in our history. The best part about this book is that it includes so much of his fantastical rhetoric. He was so dang good with words. Taken from his journals and personal writings, Carlson did a stunning job creating this truly classic piece that should not be forgotten. Loved it.

Robert Kennedy: His Life by Evan Thomas has to be the definitive biography of RFK. I would be shocked if someone undertook the task to write another one anytime soon. I finished this book yesterday and was so taken by this man's life I'm still putting all of my thoughts together. This was one of those books, like many on this list, that the minute I finished it I wanted to start it all over again. Kennedy is entirely complex and never idolized in this biography and yet for some reason you cannot ignore the legend that he is. I am obsessed with this guy's place in history.

So that should do it. I'm off to visit my father and my sister/her family in Michigan. I'll be gone until Monday night and have zero Internet connectivity (Dad's a pig farmer in rural MI), so that's one way to "unplug." I'll certainly get the best foot forward for reading in 2011 huh? I don't see Dad or Sara and her family enough, so this long weekend should bode well for Ali and I. See you in 2011.

Keep reading, my friends.

Conquered Words: December

2010-12-30T08:35:00.000-08:00

This is my monthly post where I tell you what I have read and (ever so briefly) what I thought about each work. If you haven't read these books, then read this blog and pretend that you did!

I read one book this month and I am very OK with that because I could write forever on it. Luckily, since I finished the book last night, I don't have all of my thoughts together so I'll be brief. That is the greatness of these posts, that you, my reader, tend to get my very immediate impressions on the words I read each month. Don't you love me right now?

The book was Robert Kennedy: His Life by Evan Thomas (Simon & Schuster New York, 401 pages), which I started in November that brought me to a close of 2010 and what a close it was. This man is entirely fascinating. He, like every idolized man, was so very complex and flawed yet still, in knowing as much of him as we can know, is a legend. RFK was a unique intellectual and brutish at times. He was a strange politician because he was almost too much himself. Jack was the politician of the family and Bobby was the moralist - however haunted and fatalistic he could be. The tragedy of his assassination lies in the foundation of the "what could have been," and yet without it, he and the entire Kennedy legacy would be different. I need more thinking on this book, but I already know it was well done because of Thomas's comprehensiveness and vigor. Even in showing RFK's awkward courage, brutish professionalism, strange, sometimes destructive habits, and tormented mind, he still comes out legendary, perhaps in the more appropriate way.

Look forward to my Best of 2010 CW coming very, very soon because I have already written it.

Keep reading, my friends.

Ministry in 2010

2010-12-29T13:22:00.000-08:00

On New Year's Day of 2010, I had no idea what I was going to do with my life, but I knew God had confirmed in me to continue pastoring. While I had no job, I certainly still had a calling. About mid-way through January of this year, I was blessed to come on staff part time at Willamette Christian Church as a youth intern. I basically helped the ships sail for the middle school and high school kids. It was a wild time and both ministries began to grow quite rapidly. We leaders just locked arms and charged forward to love these students and teach them the timeless ways of following Jesus.

I sit now in my office at Willamette in a full-time position and thinking about all God has done. I feel extremely blessed to be a part of God's movement at Willamette. Not only has our youth ministries grown both numerically and spiritually, but the whole church has seen awesome and good growth: new believers, baptisms, and servers. God has certainly done something this year.

I'd like to share this link to my post about all that God did in 2010 and my feelings toward it, so click here if you like. I'll give an excerpt to whet the palette:

"The truth is, I resonate a lot with Psalm 40:5 when the poet says, “You have multiplied, O Lord my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us…yet they are more than can be told.” We have seen such blessing from God this year that I’ll bet we could write a good book about it... When I started ministering that week one year ago, it might be strange for you to know that I actually did expect God to do all of the things he ended up doing. Perhaps normally you’ll hear someone say, “I never thought God would do this,” but that was not the case. I came in with high expectations from God, believing him to grow the ministry numerically and spiritually. And He did it."

Let's do this 2011...

Black Truth

2010-12-26T17:08:00.000-08:00

"...man cannot tell the who truth about himself, even if convinced that what he wrote would never be seen by others."
-Mark Twain, 1899 interview with London Times

Even during his own attempt to arrange and articulate his life, Mark Twain's desire was to leave out nothing. He admired the autobiographies of his day that were raw and somewhat uncut. When he wrote to his friends about his own autobiography, he would almost brag about the unedited nature of his true life story.

And yet alas, in the midst of such an attempt, Twain confessed to man's incapability of sharing everything so blatantly. William Dean Howells, a friend and partner of Twain's agreed with his conclusion and wrote this to him:

"You always rather bewildered me by your veracity, and I fancy you may tell the truth about yourself. But all of it? the black truth, which we all know of ourselves in our hearts, or only the whity-brown truth of the pericardium, or the nice, whitened truth of the shirt-front? Even you won't tell the clack heart's truth. The man who could do it would be famed to the last day with the sun shone upon."

We can say many true things, but is it possible for us to admit our wickedness to everyone? My experience as a minister leads me to agree with Twain and Howells: people will tell you horrific things, but rarely will they tell you the whole story. Certainly I'm not saying everyone must do this, for then our counseling rooms and coffee shops would be filled with the tears and burdens of our human reality. What is interesting is that Twain might be too right.

Maybe we could never tell the entire truth about ourselves simply because we will never know it.

There are two responses from the Christian Scriptures: First, that God knows our hearts perfectly (Psalm 44:21, Luke 16:15, Acts 15:8). But secondly, and more profoundly: "God is greater than our hearts."

Even if you do not know this black truth that Twain speaks of, even if you are unable to understand how deep the truth of yourself goes, whatever unknown darkness you may have is no match for the Biblical God.

Calvin on Christmas

2010-12-19T18:15:00.000-08:00

I do not consider myself a Calvinist, but I am somewhat a fan of John Calvin's work. Even with the praises of his modern disciples, he was still a deeply flawed man filled with violence and malice. Today he is either deified or disgraced. I am in the middle ground when I think of him. Despite his failures as a man, he wrote some of the most profound things about God, which is true of many men who said good things about God. I'm re-reading his sermons on the Christmas texts when I found this passage relating to his sermon on Isaiah 9. It is a comment on the different names of the Messiah:

"He is called Mighty God for the same reason that in Isaiah 7:14 he was called Immanuel. If in Christ we find nothing but human flesh and nature, out glorying will be foolish and vain, and our hope will rest on an uncertain and insecure foundation. But if he shows himself to be to us God, even the Mighty God, we may rely on him with safety. It is good for us that he is called strong or mighty because our contest is with the devil, death, and sin, enemies too powerful and strong, by whom we would be vanquished immediately if Christ's strength had not made us invincible. Thus we learn from this title that there is in Christ abundance of protection for defending our salvation, so that we desire nothing beyond him; he is God, who pleased to show himself strong on our behalf. This application may be regarded as the key to this and similar passages, leading us to distinguish between Christ's mysterious essence and the power by which he ha revealed himself to us."

One Reason for the Season

2010-12-14T22:09:00.000-08:00

It seems as though each Christmas I find myself wondering why I enjoy Christmas music, decorations, and the preparations we make at the church for the Holiday season. Much of these things are pagan in nature and somewhat weird on the surface. The songs seem tacky at times and I suppose the movies might get old.

But I love Christmas. I love being a pastor around this time. We have a wonderful buzz in the offices and there are plenty of things to do and more hours to work and yet everyone is happy to do it because it's good work.

I was thinking about my enjoyment of Christmas, I remembered this quote from Garrison Keillor's introduction to his book, Good Poems for Hard Times.

"The common life is precarious. I fear a future in which America becomes a loose aggregate of marauding tribes - no binding traditions, no songs that we all know, not even "The Star-Spangled Banner" or "Silent Night," no common heroes, no American literature - only the promotional lit of race and ethnicity, our people unable to name their senators, their only political experience via television, their only public life at Wal-Mart."

Each year, my brother and I attend a midnight mass at a Catholic Church in the heart of the city. There, in the hallowed architecture of the cathedral, everyone sings. It's one reason I love church. It's one of the last places in our society where people get together and sing just to sing. They're not performing, they're not trying to win money and they're not even trying to appease a god, they just let their voice join with the other voices around them in order to experience something of heaven. And it's not because they're staunch religious nuts or generational Catholics, but it's because they are touching just the fringes of something they've been missing for a long time.

There's nothing like singing together. And while not everyone knows all of the old hymns like "How Great Thou Art" or "Come Thou Fount," I can say, "O come all ye faithful," and you can finish by singing, "Joyful and triumphant!"

I think Christmas helps me understand a new side of worship: it's a corporate thing. When our congregation softly sings "Silent Night," or I hear a packed cathedral in downtown Portland sing "O Come O Come Emmanuel," I suppose I am reminded that we have not forgotten one another, we just don't get together often enough.

The Roof Caved In

2010-12-12T17:44:00.001-08:00

Enormous Microphone

2010-12-09T14:32:00.001-08:00

This is what happens when you get a camera, an enomous microphone, and a job in youth ministry.

Youth Radio and Sex Trafficking

2010-12-08T08:40:00.000-08:00

I caught this incredibly raw report on sex trafficking from Youth Radio, a non-profit that helps underprivileged youth research, write, and report on key issues of their area. On Monday, NPR aired a 12 minute story on sex trafficking in Oakland. It's intense and very well done. There are things that are able to happen with the radio that they couldn't have done if this were on television. I appreciate this because it's a very real look at an issue that is also close to home in the Portland area. It's worth a listen.

Classic Sounds: Happy Birthday Larry Bird

2010-12-07T08:55:00.001-08:00

When I looked at the date today I thought two things: first, the intensity and historic impact of the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 and, secondly, the intensity and historic impact of Larry Bird. Because for some reason in my head I have always remembered that my favorite NBA player has kind of an awkward birthday. And I need a break from work writing, let's be honest.

And then I remembered that I wrote a tribute to Larry Bird years ago on this very blog. Yes! This blog! Can you believe it?

In 2006, I wrote this classic post about Larry Bird. I re-read it and it totally has stood the test of time - I'm still proud of it. Click and check it out. Also, here's a bonus awkward photo of the REAL "Bird man," Larry Legend, in a not so legendary pose. This is what Sports Illustrated is for, right?
(HT: SI Vault)

Israel

2010-12-06T07:49:00.000-08:00

Hebrew words were never meant to carry profound meanings. Judaism thrived on the oral tradition where many verbs and adjectives would change as stories would be passed along. But names, oh were names different. Names gave you an identity and helped form the very person you would become. In the book of Ruth, a peaceable story stuck in the middle of some of the worst Old Testament carnage, begins with the family of Elimelech, Naomi, and their sons Mahlon and Chilion. Mahlon means "sick" and Chilion means "dying." Guess who doesn't make it to verse six?

The name Israel was given to Jacob in Genesis 32 after he wrestles with "a man" who was also God (ring any bells?). After wrestling and fighting with the man, Jacob is renamed Israel, which can mean several of the following: "he who wrestles with God," or "one who strives with God," or simply and paradoxically, "God strives." It is a name of tension, not relaxation, a name of friction and not of tranquility - it is uneasy.

Then is it any wonder why God chooses a people group (nation) and names them after Jacob? He could have named his people Shalom (peace) or Selah (rest), but instead he named his Chosen Ones, "The People Who Wrestle With God."

Those who claim Christianity are following this same God. Does this let you into another piece of His heart? He doesn't want easy-come-easy-go people, he wants wrestlers, soldiers - the ones that are willing to put up a fight.

Many of us become so alarmed when relating with God becomes difficult, but what if the moments of striving and fighting with God are actually the beginning of what we were really meant for?

Notes About America and Portland

2010-12-03T13:07:00.000-08:00

Here are some sweet things about all of us in the "American" or "Portlander" categories:

1) We are not that much different from the coke heads when we eat at Famous Dave's. While you might like to polish off your meal of cornbread, pulled pork, baby-back ribs and an entire stalk of corn with a ham and cheese sandwich, it's probably not doing great things for your brain. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know your heart is taking a beating (literally, you guys, literally), but what about the ol' noggin? Yale brain scientist Ralph Dileone explains why staying on a diet is so dang difficult: "The motivation to take cocaine in the case of a drug addict is probably engaging similar circuits that the motivation to eat is in a hungry person." Hey, that's a happy story! No wonder gluttony is often lumped in with those other "bad" sins of the Bible. Other researchers say that this is maybe why fat kids turn into fat adults.

2) In better discoveries, how about that airport at PDX? Well, it's apparently the BEST AIRPORT IN THE FREAKING NATION. Shabamsies! I always knew I loved that carpet, but I now realize that the whole place is pretty sweet. Let's be honest, that Wendy's has something going on and isn't it great to have two Powell's bookstores instead of one? And after visiting many airports in the states and internationally, I celebrate free WiFi with great glee.

3) President Obama shows up unannounced in Afghanistan to see what people think about his leather jacket. Not sure he pulls it off...

Good on you, America/Portland!

Conquered Words: October/November

2010-11-30T07:22:00.000-08:00

I have yet again neglected to tell you what I've read over the month of October because, well, I guess I just didn't want to. I was too busy, maybe. READING (maybe). Anyways, I don't want to miss the books that I read so I'll throw a little combo up for you, just for you.

October and November are great months in politics and I think between my job, school, and spending my free time thinking/reading about the gubernatorial race, I just didn't write much on the ol' bloggy (I am aware of how gross "ol' bloggy" sounds and I just decided to write it down there twice).

The last couple of months have been quite philosophical as I've read some pretty lengthy and heady texts. Seems to have treated me well; I enjoyed these past two months of reading.

I spent a good amount of October tackling God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics by C.S. Lewis (Eerdmans Publishing Company), which is close to 350 pages of philosophy. It certainly was delicious and I read an essay entitled, "Christian Apologetics," that I feel like I've been waiting to read for years. Lewis is an apologist in many respects, but he rarely wrote or spoke about the subject. In many ways, releasing his faith to the world was his entire ministry. It was nearly impossible for him to set it aside as a discipline of his. My approach to Christian Apologetics is very Lewisian: "We are defending Christianity; not 'my religion.' When we mention our personal opinions we must always make quite clear the difference between them and the Faith itself…the great difficulty is to get odern audiences to realize that you are preaching Christianity solely and simply because you happen to think true; they always suppose you are preaching it because you like it or think it good for society or something of that sort." The collection contains many unknown and small pieces of writing like letters to editors and small journal pieces. Also, we're allowed into small gatherings where Lewis taught, seeing sometimes his lack of eloquence or digressing that he is certainly not known for.

During that time I was editing essays of high school students in West Linn. Many of the Juniors were going through Arthur Miller's The Crucible, which is of course heavily critical of the Puritans. I picked up Sarah Vowell's The Wordy Shipmates (Riverhead Trade, 272 pages) to go along with my reading and re-reading of The Crucible and found Vowell's work a little weak. I often times find her writing style too cutesie for me and a tad under-researched. She nailed some aspects of Puritan rhetoric and its connection to modern conservatism, but she failed to recognize some of their achievements as citizens.

As if I didn't get philosophical enough in October, I spent all of November trying to figure out Michael J. Sandel's brilliant Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do? (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 368 pages). I tweeted that this could have been the best book I read all year and I might stand by that now that I've slept two nights. Sandel is a genius and one of those good Harvard professors. After teaching for twenty-plus years, he's able to put some pretty profound philosophical concepts into understandable terms. Even so, this is a tough read and is not for the simple minded. He claims that this is "not a history of ideas" type of book, although he manages to cram years of groundbreaking thought through his pages as a way to build up to his suggestions for modern society. Nevertheless, Sandel needs every word he writes and doesn't waste any of your time. He ends up raising the bar on citizenship and calls for better public discourse, asking for morals to be placed in the center of politics. It is one of the most convincing arguments and I was absolutely inspired. He is certainly a philosopher to be remembered.

Outside of that, I read an entire New York Review of Books, which is becoming a favorite publication of mine along with Ali and I's subscription to National Geographic. I'm very excited for December as my school schedule winds down and the work here at the church begins to change. Years ago I head my mentor, Joel Dombrow say, "There's nothing like being a pastor around Christmas." I think there are some things like it, but it's certainly pretty dang fun. Lots going on, tons of busy conversations and meetings, along with tons of time together as a staff. Beyond that, are people just a tad kinder around Christmas? Perhaps not.

We'll see.

Keep reading, my friends.

I Am Slowly Beginning My Obsession With the Life and Words of RFK

2010-11-29T08:12:00.000-08:00

He was America's "could have been" presidential candidate and the most mysterious of the brothers; Robert F. Kennedy is completely fascinating. Not only is his life a strange journey, but his growth as an orator is unusual.

He gave some of the worst speeches in American history - ones that left him sleeplessly depressed - and some of the greatest. He never saw himself as a public speaker, but always played behind the limelight of his brother's rhetoric. "I'm no Jack," he said to one of his aides after a speech fell flat. And yet after his brother's death, RFK went on a historical run toward to White House that included some of the greatest remarks in American politics. On the campaign trail, he spoke at the University of Kansas on March 18th, 1968 about the state of an America at war and in racism and poverty. He brought high morals to political discourse and spoke these profound words just three months before he would be assassinated.

"Our Gross National Product, now, is over $800 billion dollars a year, but that Gross National Product - if we judge the United States of America by that - that Gross National Product counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for the people who break them. It counts the destruction of the redwood and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. It counts napalm and counts nuclear warheads and armored cars for the police to fight the riots in our cities. It counts Whitman's rifle and Speck's knife, and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children. Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country, it measures everything in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. And it can tell us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans."

He was a prophet in some ways, and he claimed that Americans had given themselves over to "the mere accumulation of things." He was too right.

Out of All the Thanksgiving Articles, How Did Canzano Put It Best?

2010-11-28T09:32:00.000-08:00

Most local papers are flooded with two things over the Thanksgiving break: stories/profiles about being thankful and stories/profiles about buying stuff in excess.

The guy I didn't expect to tug at the heart strings was John Canzano, the Bald Face Truth himself. I listen to his radio program a lot only to find myself disagreeing with much that he has to say. I have, for the most part however, really enjoyed his thoughts on Ducks football. I find that a lot of people love to hate him, so doesn't that make the guy a perfect local celeb? His columns are read and his show is listened to seemingly by people who largely disagree with him. It's pretty awesome. I suppose it makes for some good radio now and again.

But his Thanksgiving obiturary honoring Dr. Herb Marshack, a great and long-lived Duck football fan, was awesome. For some reason, Canzano's dry and pointed style worked really well in honoring this guy I had never heard of until this weekend. It's a short article and I really suggest you read it. Thanks Canzano.

Also, Go Ducks.

Inside the Other Worldly World of George Noory

2010-11-27T17:12:00.000-08:00

Last week I came across this January 2010 profile in The Atlantic on George Noory, the host of the AM radio sensation, Coast to Coast AM with George Noory.

Years ago I played guitar for a mentor and good friend of mine, Mike Brandow. We would travel throughout the Northwest playing different churches and conferences. This required a decent amount of driving in whatever van became available to us. The Pickle. The Nugget. The Handy. These were favorites in our arsenol.

Often times we would drive in the middle of the night from one church to another. We would play at a Saturday night service and then a Sunday morning service somewhere else and make it back to our home church to play a Sunday night youth group. Needless to say, there always was the challenge of finding entertainment during these drives.

I can remember one night, early in my time playing with Brandow, when he dialed in to a radio show he had been telling us about amidst his own giggling: Coast to Coast AM with George Noory. He kept telling me how crazy this guy was, reporting on the supernatural and the unknown of our universe.

We tried to stifle our laughter in order to further hear his thoughts on "star children," who were born on the outer regions of our solar system. Noory's voice fit perfectly with his subject matter. And while what he spoke of was, in our minds, entirely absurd, a strange and long silence would fill the van as we listened in.

I never really understood what makes his show so listenable, except for perhaps the idea that we were listening in on something unearthly -- Like tapping into another species' radio waves, we could not afford to turn it off. Or maybe because it was just so dang strange.

This profile brings Noory down to earth, from showing us his past and what he's like out at dinner to his conference speaking schedule and daily routine. I appreciate this quote, about the tone of the conversation at dinner:

"Before long, the impulse to tell funny stories about life within the Coast to Coast universe—which extends past the studio’s orbit and into conferences, TV appearances, and speaking engagements, and is expanding—proved irresistible. And I realized, as I listened, that all the stories were funny in a particular way: it’s never clear, in their world, where the demarcation between fantasy and reality is drawn—or, indeed, if such a line can really be said to exist anymore."

What Oprah Gave Away

2010-11-27T16:38:00.001-08:00

I laugh really hard every time I see "Oprah's Favorite Things" giveaway show and then I cry a lot. But then Conan O'Brien makes me smile again.

In Eugene Today

2010-11-26T09:59:00.000-08:00

My buddy Stu was gracious enough to hook me up with a ticket to today's game where our #1 Duck team (crazy) will take on the desert's #22 (or #21) team, the Arizona Wildcats. I'll be in Autzen with Stu praying it doesn't rain and screaming my face off. Oregon, of course, has to win this season out and it won't be easy. Obviously I want to see a win and I want a national championship, but I also would love to see LaMichael James have two breakout games to put him back in the Heisman Trophy conversation. He'll need a couple of big performances.

In celebration of my going to this certainly entertaining and awesome game, I'll give you this terrifyingly awkward ESPN interview with the Oregon Duck, Puddles, wherein the said Duck is interpreted by a somewhat incapable "interpreter."

Watch This, Give Thanks

2010-11-24T15:31:00.000-08:00

In the event that you have nothing to say when the family goes around the table tomorrow to say what they're thankful for, I shall give you this. And Grandma calls on you for a comment, you'll have something to say, like, "You know what Grandma, at least my life doesn't look like this. That, you know, that is really what I'm thankful for, Grandma."

Fatal Distraction

2010-11-22T08:03:00.000-08:00

Whenever Matt Richtel publishes something longer than 1,500 words, The New York Times website explodes. He specializes in the effects of technology trends on young adults and adults. Hello 21st century reader.

His most recent lengthy report is, "Growing Up Digital, Wired For Distraction," which was emailed to me almost 6,000 times (I'm exaggerating, you guys).

There's a lot of solid truth in this article and there's a lot of hyperbole in it as well. Whenever I read a trending article, I always think about how people in the future will read it. I think about the articles I have read from Time Magazine from the 1950s that were saying radios in our cars are going to be the death of human society as we know it. We gotta take some stuff with a grain, you know?

Anyways, there's a lot that's fascinating about this article and I'd really like to read more about it all, but this was the most interesting quote from Richtel's report:

"Sean’s favorite medium is video games; he plays for four hours after school and twice that on weekends. He was playing more but found his habit pulling his grade point average below 3.2, the point at which he felt comfortable. He says he sometimes wishes that his parents would force him to quit playing and study, because he finds it hard to quit when given the choice. Still, he says, video games are not responsible for his lack of focus, asserting that in another era he would have been distracted by TV or something else.
'Video games don’t make the hole; they fill it,' says Sean..."

Is it the kids' fault that they're hooked on video games? I'm not convinced. Of course, when given free reign, any kid would choose to text their friends at the dinner table, play video games for 8 hours a day, or stick on Facebook until morning. And I talk with a lot of parents who don't have the energy to assert authority in the digital realm of their house so they make the justification: "I want my son to be free to choose," they'll say.

But are they really free?

Sean does not sound free.

Many believe that freedom is the absence of restriction, that you can play video games as much as you want and be online as much as you want and watch TV until you wish to stop. But true freedom is different. Freedom is not the absence of restrictions, but it's the application of the right restrictions. The fish is most free when confined to water, and we are most free in our health when we are on a restricted diet. Therefore, we are not most free when we make our options as wide as possible, but rather when we put the right limitations on our lives.

Christianity is about following Jesus and his way for us. We follow his "will" rather than ours. And yes, this puts restrictions on us. God commands us not to do certain things and to withhold from certain vices. Many people see Christianity, then, as a straitjacket they are fastened in to. But isn't that better than being a slave to your own passions and desires? Immanuel Kant understood this perfectly and Michael Sandel sums Kant's thinking best saying that, "whenever we are seeking to satisfy our desires, everything we do is for the sake of some end given outside of us...whenever my behavior is biologically determined or socially conditioned, it is not truly free."

Sean, and many American teens, are not free; they are slaves to their own natural desires. Only for a while will our slave master have us duped to thinking we are completely free.

Christ, then, comes to earth and proclaims he is God, that he is the Truth and that following him means giving up your life, will, and desire, and in doing so you will find "abundant life." During his ministry he makes the radical statement that now perhaps can make more sense: "You shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall set you free."

Christianity certainly requires that one restrains oneself - that one must give up everything for the kingdom and glory of God - but in the restriction and delivering of the self, there is complete and total freedom because your desires are no longer yours, but God's.

Hey, Here's Fifteen Minutes of Gold

2010-11-21T17:50:00.001-08:00

Tina Fey won this year's Mark Twain Award for American Humor and let's be honest, she deserved it. And as if she had to prove that she deserved such an award, she gave such a smart acceptance speech that I'm told she wrote herself. Enjoy a video of the speech here so you can see her amazing Fresh Prince hair style, circa 1991.

Watch the full episode. See more Mark Twain Prize.

Podcast is Go

2010-11-20T14:23:00.000-08:00

In the latest issue of The New York Review of Books, Bill McKibben wrote about something you don't see a lot of writing dedicated to: radio. Before television and the Internet, the radio was all there was and much of the magazine and newspaper criticism/review was directed toward the medium. Lately, radio has become a forgotten about media to criticize. We have innumerable websites and magazine dedicated solely to television and movies, but it's tough to find a constant critical radio magazine.

"Radio may be the least discussed, debated, understood" medium today says McKibben. But while it might be criticized the least, it certainly isn't struggling. The conservative talking head Rush Limbaugh brings in 14.25 million listeners each week. National Public Radio's news shows All Things Considered and Morning Edition draw in a rival 13 million each week. While these numbers might pale in comparison to television audiences, it's still quite a lot of people.

McKibben's question is in the subtext of the article, but is nonetheless clear: if so many people are listening to radio, how come nobody is talking or writing about it?

More obviously, the article is a praise of public radio's dramatic increase in listenership and financial support since its birth in America in the 1970s. While it has certainly changed since that time, its relevancy is greater than ever. More listeners and more contributors make for a sign that this generation loves not only to watch, but to listen.

"This is the perfect moment to be a young radiohead," says McKibben. "It's like 1960s and 1970s cinema, with auteurs rewriting the rules."
And now podcasts, which are drawing from the well of iTunes customers who love free crap and to sport their cool white earpieces while ordering food at the nearby 7-Eleven, have a listenership well into the millions. Most podcasts are free and there are currently somewhere about 200,000 podcasts available on iTunes. With all of these numbers from public radio and talk shows and podcasts, it's easy to see that this generation listens to the radio not for music, but for talk.

So all of that boredom to say that we're starting a podcast. The Willamette Students Podcast will be yet another way to connect with the students and world we live in. It will be another avenue for truth, humor, and information.

When I walk through the halls of West Linn High School, about one in five students have little white headphones stuck in one ear or both. They show up to my youth group the same way. Their iPhones and iPods now connect directly to the iTunes store and getting a podcast will be easier than ever.

The Willamette Students Podcast will be an attempt to dial in (pun both intended and included) to the ear of today's high school student.

Beyond this, I'm somewhat of a radio/podcast junkie. I just love the radio, despite whatever has happened over the last century. I grew up on public radio and AM talk-shows. There are things that can be done on radio that simply cannot be done on television and I love that.

What will it look like? Not sure. The only I know is that each episode will be different and funny. Each one will not be like the one before it. We'll bring in guests to the studio or we'll take the gear into the city and talk to people. We'll get ambitious with it and see what happens. What you can be sure of, is that each week will be about 20-25 minutes of excellent material that's relevant to the student in the Willamette area. But let's be honest, that looks like a lot of different things.

To listen in to our first episode, simply search "Willamette Students" in the iTunes store search bar, or click here.

Long live radio!

A College Student Icon on College Students

2010-11-19T10:42:00.000-08:00

I'm reading Michael J. Sandel's Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do? right now and in it he essentially proposes that there's no such thing as objectivity. That we all, through our parents and communities, are shaped so independently with such strength, that it's impossible to communicate and make decisions without revealing in some way our own feelings, biases, and opinions.

Last week, Russell Baker reviewed a new collection of H.L. Mencken's work and I had to pull this quote out. There was a strangely healthy bias coming through in the 20s and 30s media that I feel like, if we're careful, we might be pulling back into some media outlets today. When you read old publication's like Mencken's Mercury, you realize how crazy it was then, and how perhaps the way we project what's happening in the world today isn't so uniquely absurd. Voices from every side had their own paper or pamphlet and many citizens read what they wanted to read. The only difference now is that I can see you screaming.

Because of Mencken's insane commentaries (which were ultimately banned due to being so "obscene"), college students flocked to him and praised his work. He had this to say about them:

I have, in fact, almost no interest in the ideas of college students. They seem to me to be simply immature me. They are always following fresh messiahs. That I served for a short while as one of those messiahs was not only surprising to me, but extremely offensive.

-H.L. Mencken, Prejudices

What has changed?

A True Man

2010-11-17T22:56:00.001-08:00

My friends in high school would always talk about how this epic scene from To Kill a Mockingbird is certainly one of the greatest displays of manhood in cinema. We also always used to try and act this scene out with a straight face. Never worked.

Anyways, I was speaking on not repaying evil with evil and "turning the other cheek" and just had to show this because Atticus Finch is more of a man than you. Observe:

We're Not Dead Yet

2010-11-16T07:56:00.000-08:00

For all of the writing on the death of Humanities departments and the trouble of finding a solid Ph.D system, there are some things that keep the disciplines within the department alive. And it might be that technology will save us nerds of the ancient books.

Patricia Cohen, an education reporter for the New York Times, wrote "Digital Keys for Unlocking the Humanities' Riches" for this morning's paper and I must tip my hat. I've always enjoyed Cohen's stuff because she's always following modern Humanities scholarship and tends to bring out some gems for us nerds.

It's a short article that illuminates some sweet digital trends in a subject typically marked by its arcane factions.

"The humanities, after all, deal with elusive questions of aesthetics, existence and meaning, the words that bring tears or the melody that raises goose bumps. Are these elements that can be measured?
'The digital humanities do fantastic things,' said the eminent Princeton historian Anthony Grafton. 'I’m a believer in quantification. But I don’t believe quantification can do everything. So much of humanistic scholarship is about interpretation.'"

Go on....

"In Mr. Scheinfeldt’s view academia has moved into 'a post-theoretical age.' This 'methodological moment,' he said, is similar to the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when scholars were preoccupied with collating and cataloging the flood of new information brought about by revolutions in communication, transportation and science. The practical issues of discipline building, of assembling an annotated biography, of defining the research agenda and what it means to be a historian 'were the main work of a great number of scholars,' he said."

I'm OK with this and also realize that I won't be a part of the movement as Blogger is sometimes a little difficult for me to navigate. I'll stick to the books. But, hey, more power to 'em. Me likey.

P.S. How about that guy's coat in that picture? Yes, please...

The Washington Post Did Something Right

2010-11-15T07:26:00.001-08:00

For some reason this video made me want an iPad and the Washington Post app. Great video.

Signature

2010-11-09T17:01:00.001-08:00

Student: "Once you have a signature, can you do anything in the world?"

Me: "Actually, yes."

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

What A Conference Won't Teach You

2010-11-02T23:16:00.000-07:00

I think there are a lot of great churches with a lot of awesome conferences that all communicate great and awesome things. In my short time as a pastor, I have looked at several churches who have "got it all together." They do community groups right, they have stellar preaching, they have great music, and they serve their community with consistency and eagerness. But I was challenged in a meeting the other day when one of our ministry partners complimented us on listening to the poor as a leadership strategy.

Recently, it's come to my attention that I can learn a ton at conferences and podcasts on church leadership and preaching. However, one thing I can't learn from these things is what I have learned from those who have way less than I do. When I listen to dudes at conferences I leave thinking, how can we beef up our strategies and systems as a church? My thought process is entirely centered on pulling us up as a church.

But when I leave a conversation with someone who has less than I do, who has an entirely different worldview than I do simply based on economic standing, I start thinking about how I can personally bring myself lower. I don't care about strategies and systems, I care about them. I start thinking about giving away more money and getting to know more people like that. It's a totally different thought process.

So instead of going to conferences twice a year, maybe we get to know the people in our community who have less than we do materially. Because I think we'll find out that some are rich in the things we lack.

Why Dr. Voddie Baucham Trusts the Bible

2010-10-27T15:43:00.000-07:00

I can dig this. Voddie has a sweet name and a sweet story: raised by a single Mom who was a Hindu living in South Central LA. He ended up getting out of Oxford with a Ph.D and he's a lecturer and a Christian minister. Here's why he trusts the Bible. It's not because he believes it, or because it worked for him, or because he was raised to believe it:

"The Bible is a reliable collection of historical documents written down by eye witnesses during the life time of other eye witnesses that report supernatural events which took place in fulfillment of specific prophecies and claim to be divine rather than human in origin."

Theology is a Science

2010-10-26T08:08:00.000-07:00

Right when I think I've read C.S. Lewis' most celebrated work, I find a true gem. I've been slowly cutting my way through God in the Dock, which is a compilation of his work that was un-archived at the time of his death. It is a smattering of articles, lectures, and sermons that were never released in book form until the great Walter Hooper put it together.

I'm on his tenth entry. It's a lecture given to young ministers and leaders of the Anglican and Welsh Church in 1945. The title is "Christian Apologetics" and I can't believe I hadn't read any of it yet. Part of it's beauty is that it is a rare time in which Lewis is lecturing to a group of priests and pastors. He was a popular lecturer at the time and a renown novelist, but rarely did he speak at conferences for the clergy. With this audience in front of him, Lewis' tone is rare and increasingly captivating for those of us who have read most of his work.

I also love it because he articulates something that I've been searching for (as usual).

His primary thesis is to stray away from defending or preaching Christianity just because "you like it or think it good for society or something of that sort." Rather, Lewis says, we are to preach and proclaim and defend Christianity because we know it to be true. There is a huge difference. Christians are not promoters of a good societal antidote, but we are heralds of the Truth, a greater reality.

Because we are heralds and defenders of what is true, what is actual reality, there exists no piece or aspect of Christianity that we should shy away from.

"Science progresses because scientists, instead of running away from such troublesome phenomena or hushing them up, are constantly seeking them out. In the same way, there will be progress in Christian knowledge only as long as we accept the challenge of the difficult or repellent doctrines."

A scientist is good at what he does not because he only knows the new theories, but he is so strong in his conceptualization and knowledge of the foundations laws of nature that he knows exactly when a new one develops.

We must be completely solid in the ancient truth and proclamation of the Scriptures, that God in his infinite love and grace has revealed to the world who he is through the life, death, and resurrection of Christ the Lord, and whoever should place their life in his hands shall be redeemed. In our absolute rigidness of this Truth, let us boldly explore that which we do not know. For it will only more perfectly shape our love for the primary Truth.

Theology is more scientific than you might think. Christians tend to be afraid of launching into the mysteries of our faith. Yet this would eliminate one of our basic human functions: discovery.

You know the basic revelation, now go boldly into that which might be true. Answers are ahead.

Why the Baptists Got Rid of It

2010-10-15T14:37:00.001-07:00

For your consideration:

Conquered Words: September

2010-10-15T09:44:00.000-07:00

This is my monthly post where I tell you what I have read and (ever so briefly) what I thought about each work. If you haven't read these books, then read this blog and pretend that you did!

EMBARRASSING.

This is way late, but I blame getting back to the university and a growing church! So bam.

Here, then, is what I read over that fine month of September.

1) Adam's Return: The Five Promises of Male Initiation by Richard Rohr (Crossroad Publishing Company, 166 pages). I have heard a little too much about this book and had to pick it up. SO GLAD I DID. Raves. Rohr is a Catholic Priest who at the onset of the book swears he's not a scholar, but let's be honest, all priests are scholars. I grew up around them in Catholic school (and no, I didn't) and got to see the life they lead: it is filled with study, something the evangelicals have lost. Anyways, this book is a fascinating look at what every culture has taught their boys before they became men. Five things that every single culture in world history has taught their men…except ours (modern Americanism). Ready for the five? Life is Hard. You are Not Important. Your Life is Not about You. You Are Not in Control. You are Going to Die. Make all the arguments you want, but it's my observation that I was taught the exact opposite before I knew Christ. Rohr goes way beyond his bounds and halfway through I realized this is not a spiritual book, but a gender studies book. Read it.

2) The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer (Crossway, 119 pages). Yes, I've read it before. Too much to say about this book. This blog, my whole ministry and thought life is thanks to C.S. Lewis and A.W. Tozer. They are my intellectual mentors along with the Greeks. Tozer is someone you must read, but someone you don't just read. You drink. Also, please don't read Tozer until you're out of high school. Just trust me. You'll need him sophomore year at university.

I started Radical by David Platt because David Brooks of the New York Times wrote about it but I never really got into it. I'm a little overwhelmed with what God should have me do thanks to Joel's current series and a couple of documentaries I've watched. I'll be leaving to pray for a day at the end of the month…I'll sort things out there and maybe pick up Platt's book again.

Keep reading, friends.

What Makes Us Wise?

2010-10-12T22:18:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking about this Proverb (25:2) for about three years.

"It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out."

I was reminded of it when I read this passage from Richard Rohr's book, Adam's Return:

"In general, what you see in the true sage is a balancing act between knowing and not knowing, between intelligence and not needing to be intelligent, between darkness and light...The wise man also knows that he does not know. This humble window of openness, this willingness to know that we do not know, has a much used and misused word to describe it: faith. And Jesus praises it even more than love." (pg. 128)

True Christian faith is active, right? Then isn't part of that activity one's imagination and intellect? "Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, and with all of your soul, and with all of your mind, and with all of your strength."

Wisdom is not waving the magic wand of "belief" over all of the things you wish to be true and then calling it "faith." The Bible is not true because you "believe in it," God is not living and active because you believe in Him, and Jesus did not raise from the dead because you "believe in it." Either the Bible is true or not, either God is real or not, and either Jesus was who he said he was and did what he said he did or not. Belief statements are not always truth statements. The wise man finds the sacred ground between concrete truth and the wild, mysterious beauty of God.

Wisdom and faith are linked in that they are the mark of the sage: He seeks that which he does not know, understanding that what he seeks may be eternally concealed.

"Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." (Hebrews 11:1)

Translating Literature

2010-10-05T21:54:00.000-07:00

Michael Cunningham wrote this awesome piece for The New York Times about the nature of translating literature. Firstly, it's just a well written essay. But secondly Cunningham draws on something I'm very interested: a subject called "Writing and the Ways of Knowing." He begins with suggesting the difficulties of translating novels but asserts, "that the original novel is, in a way, a translation itself."

Writing itself is a translation of thought, which is a translation of revelation or invention (that's Aristotle, ladies). I often think about this when I read my Bible. With such a sacred text, it's easy to read it and begin to place its subjects (namely God himself) in boxes of definition. However, what we are reading serves as just the very elementary pieces of God and his work on the earth. The Bible is an introduction to who God is - more of a, "God For Dummies" if you will. For we cannot handle more than the fringes of his glory.

The article goes nowhere near the spiritual, but it certainly got me thinking, which consequently gets you reading my aimless thinking.

So sorry.