Wow. this is what it’s about. This is the approach Jesus would take.
This is from Kinetic Church, a church plant in Charlotte, NC. They meet in a movie theatre. The trailer containing 75% of their equipment was stolen. This video was done in response.
What does God think when I ask God’s blessing on my meal when I eat at…McDonalds? Or Wendy’s? “Lord, please bless these jumbo fries, double cheeseburger, and Frosty to the nourishment of my body.” Is God going, “So in other words, you’re asking me for a miracle?”
Should we actually pray for forgiveness? “God, I know I’m exercising poor stewardship of my body by eating such a non-nutritious meal. Even as I chomp these fries, all I can do is ask for your forgiveness.”
Actually, I suspect this is one of those free will things God just doesn’t get hung up about.
One of our churches was mentioned in an article about the use of technology in churches. The online article included three comments. Before looking at them, I figured they would be people griping about how we’ve become entertainment-driven, worldly, etc. And that was true of two comments. And yet, I found some things that made me smile.
I regularly read Craig Groeschel’s “Swerve” blog. He’s the pastor of >LifeChurch.tv in Oklahoma City, one of the most innovative and internet-savvy churches in the country. He puts some outstanding leadership stuff on the blog.
I just learned of a new initiative which I think is pretty exciting. They call it “One Prayer.” It’s a four-week (or more) series starting June 7-8, focused on the premise, “If God would answer one prayer for the church at large, what would you pray?” Various megachurch pastors will prepare messages in advance titled, “Make us _____.” Groeschel will do “make us One.” Perry Noble of Newspring will do “Make us Dangerous.” Ed Young will preach “Make us Creative.” And there will be many more.
Churches can download these messages and show them in their services. I sent a note to my pastor about it. It sounds like a pretty neat thing to me. Something the broader body of Christ is combining to do.
You can watch a video by Craig Groeschel here, and also visit a special One Prayer website.
This is a pretty amazing post on the Swerve blog, the words of a young woman who, at 26, succumbed to cancer. Oh, to have a love for and experience with God like Katie.
The March 3 Time magazine featured an article about George Clooney. I like him a lot. He’s got journalism roots, which brings a degree of open-mindedness, of considering both sides of an argument, plus a heavy dose of cynicism. Legions of celebrities think they’re smart, and flaunt their actual ignorance (Hail King Sean Penn!). Clooney is, indeed, smart, but he’s sufficiently wise to avoid over-using his celebrity platform. He views himself with realistic self-depredation.
This article (by the hilarious Joel Stein‚ÄîI always read his articles) mentions “Not On Our Watch,” an organization Clooney founded to help Darfur ($9 million so far). He had recently returned from Darfur. But instead of trumpeting his adventures and good deeds, Clooney mused about the futility of using celebrity to spotlight world problems. “I’m terrified that it isn’t in any way helping. That bringing attention can cause more damage. You dig a well or build a health-care facility, and they’re a target for somebody.”
Then he said this: “A lot more people know about Darfur, but absolutely nothing is different. Absolutely nothing.”
Think about the church. We regularly hear sermons and attend Sunday school classes in which we are reminded of the importance of prayer, of Bible reading, of witnessing, of not gossiping, of serving, of giving sacrificially. And yet, look over your fellow parishioners, who have dutifully absorbed these messages year after year. Is anything, truly, different? And if anything is different, is that a result of the abundance of words, or because of other dynamics?
There are certain causes I tackle on this blog–the plight of poor people, factory farming, US-sponsored torture. My mindless harping might bring a tiny bit of awareness to the six people who visit my online abode. But even if thousands of people tuned in, would anything be, in reality, different? Harping doesn’t work.
Barack Obama says the US keeps electing the same people to fight the same problems in the same way. Or something like that. It seems that we in the church spin our wheels in a parallel way, without behavior changing. Great things are happening in some churches, indeed. But it’s, sadly, not the norm.
Today I received an email about a “Good-Time gospel Jubilee Show” coming to Fort Wayne next month. It sounds pretty neat. One line describes it as “family friendly” and “affordable,” at only $12 a ticket. By today’s standards, for a special event like that, $12 is a bargain.
And that got me thinking about how much our culture is geared to the middle-class and above, and disregards low-income people. Christian pop culture, like everything else, is geared to suburbanites. The Christian concerts that come through town, Christian workshops and conferences, even some of the ticket-required Christmas programs and dinner theatres that local churches do–they all require discretionary money. And that’s what Christian suburbanites have in abundance.
I once resided in that world, and saw no problem. Now I attend a church populated by low-income people for whom $12 is out-of-bounds. Take a family of five to an event like that, at $12 a pop? No way. Maybe you splurge once a year. But it’s not discretionary money. You’ll miss that $60.
And so–is this event truly “affordable”? Is the Third Day concert affordable? The Living Christmas Tree? Only if you’ve decided that you are absolutely not attempting to draw poor people. And I guess we (yes, we) suburbanites are generally okay with that.
Beliefnet lists the “12 Most Powerful Christians in Hollylwood.” There is a page for each person, along with info about why that person is included in the list. I raised my eyebrows a few times as the next page appeared and I saw the name. But the descriptions were quite interesting.
Greg Boyd has become one of my must-read bloggers. He’s a pastor and intellectual-type guy who voices, with solid rationale, many of the views I hold but can’t articulate in any convincing way. He recently participated in a debate on “Evangelicals and Politics” with Chuck Colson and Shane Claiborne (author of the incredible The Irresistible Revolution). On his blog last week, Boyd recapped some of the exchanges from that debate. Interesting stuff.
An interesting piece called “Preaching vs. Blogging.” It compares the two mediums (media, whatever) with a chart. For instance: preaching includes voice inflection and body language, but blogs have a delete button and audience feedback.
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