Archive - October, 2008

Saving Christians…

October 31, 2008 in Ministry-Theology with 2 Comments

Interesting article in Relevant Magazine with Rob Bell on Saving Christians.

Here is an excerpt:

In the intro of your new book, Jesus Wants To Save Christians, you describe the specific theology you are trying to articulate as a New Exodus perspective. How is this approach to reading the Bible different from a systematic or biblical theology?

Systematic theology dissects the story, cutting the body of the text into separate pieces for the purposes of study. Biblical theology puts the pieces back together into a living narrative. Both do so from a particular perspective influenced by the reader’s history, culture, politics and economic status. The New Exodus is one perspective, taken from the side of the weak and marginal and the God who cares about them. We’re interested in the big story because that’s what the Bible is—a story that unfolds across history. Who are the major characters, what’s the plot, how do we take part in it? Perhaps this is why Jesus can be hard to understand. It’s hard to understand the later parts if you haven’t been brought up to speed on where the story has been so far.

The literal and metaphorical idea of Exodus is a key part of the story God is telling—why don’t we hear more about the connection of Exodus in our churches today?

The Exodus is about the oppressed-slaves-being rescued. Less than two hundred years ago in our country, people in churches owned slaves. Exodus would have been an awkward story to tell in those settings, because after all, the Pharoah character is the bad guy. Needy people talk about Exodus. Jesus said it. It’s hard to enter the kingdom of heaven when you’re content with the kingdom you already have. If we aren’t talking about Exodus it’s because we aren’t looking for one. That’s when we know we need the needs of others. Their Exodus can become our own.

In your book you say, “To preserve prosperity at the expense of the powerless is to miss the heart of God.” In what ways do you believe the church in America has “preserved prosperity” at others’ expense?

I think it’s wise to avoid generalities such as “the church” because whenever I hear people make sweeping generalizations about “the church” I always think “yes, but I know lots of churches where they are compassionate, where they are intellectually honest, etc…”Perhaps one obvious question a church can ask herself is “What percentage of our budget is spent on us and what is spent on others?

The Church has missed the heart of God by speaking out against abortion while keeping silent about war. Both are forms of violence used to preserve prosperity. Abortion is prenatal war against the powerless child. War is postnatal abortion that destroys innocent life. The kingdom is life for the fetus and life for the civilian. The church embodies this life in a world of expedient and preemptive killing.

Becoming A Heretic on Church Ministry: The Sermon

October 28, 2008 in Ministry-Theology with 7 Comments

The Context
Last week I posted a blog, Becoming A Heretic on Church Ministry. I was playing off what Seth Godin says in his new book Tribes: We Need You To Lead Us. You can find my review of the book at Leadership Network.

Godin says:

Challenging the status quo requires a committment, both public and private. It involves reaching out to others and putting yourideas on the line. (Or pinning your Ninety-five Theses to the church door). (pp. 49)

and later in the book, Godin says:

Religion and faith are often confused. Someone who opposes faith is called an atheist and widely reviled. But we don’t have a common word for someone who opposes a particular religion.

Heretic will have to do.

If faith is the foundation of a belief system, then religion is the facade and the landscaping. It’s easy to get caught up in the foibles of a corporate culture and the systems that have been built over time, but they have nothing at all to do with the faith that built the system in the first place.

Change is made by people, by leaders who are proud to be called heretics because their faith is never in question. (pp. 84)

My Thought
I wrote in that post that,

In the next several posts I would like to challenge, raise questions, debate some areas of Church ministry that need some unorthodox thinking in them. Maybe we need more heretics in our midst to help us re-think/re-imagine how the Church could be.

These are areas that I have struggled with a long time as I know many of you have, many of you are beginning to, and others will just think, well, that’s heretical thinking. I’m simply bringing them up to raise discussion and conversation, not because I have all the answers to these. That’s why I want your input.

The Sermon
And so I want to begin with The Sermon. At the time I was especially thinking about the sermon as it has traditionally taken form…a man on stage, engaged in a one way dialogue, speaking at an audience for about 30-45 minutes, without much or any participation or involvement of those in the pew.

My issue with the sermon does not lie in the sermon itself. We see very well known passages of Scripture were sermons are preached (i.e. Jesus at the Sermon on the Mount, or Peter at Pentecost, etc.). Nor are my issues just with the pastor…this is the way we were taught to preach and teach. But as a body of Christ we have also pressed upon it certain expectations–entertainment, education, passive observation, charisma, etc. We have essentially become theater goers that sit in our chair, expecting to be entertained, then afterwards giving our praise or criticism based upon the “performance.” Continue Reading…

My Social Media Addiction Update!

October 28, 2008 in Ministry-Theology with 4 Comments

Curbing My Addiction
About two weeks ago I wrote the post, You Might Be A Social Media Addict If……Setting Boundaries On Social Media. In that post I proposed the 10 things that I was going to try to help curb my addiction. Two weeks is hardly an experiment, but I figured if I can’t be disciplined for two weeks, well then, maybe I’m in trouble. Below are the 10 things.

So here is what I am proposing I do:

  1. Blog no more than 3 posts a week.
  2. Stop email coming to my phone.
  3. Stop checking Twitter on my phone. Only online.
  4. Check Facebook only 1 time a day.
  5. 10pm Internet Rule: Once 10 hits I can’t be online anymore.
  6. Family Time: Focus on being present. No thinking about being online, or wanting to Twitter about something if it takes me away from being present (this is more subjective)
  7. Visit no more than 25 blogs a day.
  8. Saturday Sabbath: No internet (I’m not talking about checking a phone number or address) surfing.
  9. No Twittering on Sunday
  10. When I am with family (dinner with wife, playing with daughter)…no Twittering. This is subjective sometimes, because my wife and I might want to Twitter about something we are doing so the family can see. But you get the point.

So How Did I Do

  1. Blog no more than 3 posts a week: SUCCEED. So far so good. I limited by posts pretty much, but did post one extra little blurb one day. I really felt a lot of great freedom in setting that criteria, rather than living under the pressure to always post. But I have decided to change this rule to 3 days of blogging rather than 3 posts. I just found that sometimes I wanted to write more. So it gives me the freedom to most more than once on one of those three days, or to write up some drafts ahead of time that can be released on certain days. I will probably settle on some 3 day rhythm Monday–Friday.
  2. Stop email coming to my phone. FAIL, FAIL, FAIL. Attempted to disconnect it, and after not finding the command easily, abandoned the idea and failed miserably. Date package might be coming to an end on my phone though.
  3. Stop checking Twitter on my phone. Only online. FAIL, FAIL, FAIL. This started out good, but by the 3rd day I was all over Twitter on my phone.
  4. Check Facebook only 1 time a day. SUCCEED. I have continued to keep this up only getting on about once a day. There might have been a two day in there, but for the most part, one time a day has been suffice.
  5. 10pm Internet Rule: Once 10 hits I can’t be online anymore. SUCCEED. I did send one email one time at about 11pm, but I was always off before 10 on all the other days. This has been a good rule. Shutting it down early and not taking online work with me in my mind so close to bed is really helpful.
  6. Family Time: Focus on being present. No thinking about being online, or wanting to Twitter about something if it takes me away from being present (this is more subjective). SUCCEED. I made a huge effort to not be online when my wife and daughter were with me. If my wife had to work late one night and my daughter was asleep I would hop online. But chose not to surf the web while we were together, and limited Twitter to times where we both wanted to send a message out about what we were doing together.
  7. Visit no more than 25 blogs a day. SUCCEED. I have stopped going to my Google Reader, and I search/read no more than 25 blogs a day, trying to switch up who I read, and the variety of content that I read throughout the week.
  8. Saturday Sabbath: No internet (I’m not talking about checking a phone number or address) surfing. SUCCEED. Have not hopped online at all on a Saturday. Love having that be totally unplugged.
  9. No Twittering on Sunday. SEMI-FAIL. Instead of not Twittering on Sunday, I chose not to Twitter on Saturday and succeeded, being unplugged from computer and Twitter all day. I did end up Twittering 1-2 times on those Sundays though instead.
  10. When I am with family (dinner with wife, playing with daughter)…no Twittering. This is subjective sometimes, because my wife and I might want to Twitter about something we are doing so the family can see. But you get the point. SUCCEED. Didn’t Twitter unless my wife and I wanted a message to go out.

So all in all, not too bad. But I still need to tinker and adjust some things. I will keep you updated.

Where Do You Fall on the Graph?

October 23, 2008 in Ministry-Theology with 1 Comment


HT: Marcus Hackler

Despite Rumors of It’s Early Demise, Blogging Is Not Dead…It Is Evolving

October 22, 2008 in Ministry-Theology with 7 Comments

Is Blogging Dead
Yesterday afternoon I read two Tweets from Jeremiah Owyang, Senior Analyst at Forrester.

They were as follows:

Wired suggests blogs are old hat –call me old fashioned!

followed by,

What’s interesting is that the Wired opinion doesn’t have a single piece of data in it’s article –go read Sifry’s state of blogosphere.

Apparently this article from Paul Boutin in Wired Magazine has been getting a lot of attention this week, especially from those of us who blog. In the article Twitter, Flickr, Facebook Make Blogs Look So 2004, Boutin states:

Thinking about launching your own blog? Here’s some friendly advice: Don’t. And if you’ve already got one, pull the plug.

Writing a weblog today isn’t the bright idea it was four years ago. The blogosphere, once a freshwater oasis of folksy self-expression and clever thought, has been flooded by a tsunami of paid bilge. Cut-rate journalists and underground marketing campaigns now drown out the authentic voices of amateur wordsmiths. It’s almost impossible to get noticed, except by hecklers. And why bother? The time it takes to craft sharp, witty blog prose is better spent expressing yourself on Flickr, Facebook, or Twitter.

No, But Blogging Is Evolving
Flickr, Facebook and Twitter are amazing tools that I love and use everyday, but they are just but pieces of the package, as is a blog. To use another metaphor, they are just individual members of the body. But so is blogging.

Blogging is not dead, nor does your blog need to be pulled, rather it is an evolving art form in my opinion.

None of the social media tools that seem to arrive on the scene everyday are the complete and perfect individual tools that one needs, rather they are just pieces of the puzzle, but when brought into harmony together, have a powerful effect on one’s social media experience and their contribution to the world.

In fact, Andrew Sullivan wrote an exceptional piece, Why I Blog. He begins:

For centuries, writers have experimented with forms that evoke the imperfection of thought, the inconstancy of human affairs, and the chastening passage of time. But as blogging evolves as a literary form, it is generating a new and quintessentially postmodern idiom that’s enabling writers to express themselves in ways that have never been seen or understood before. Its truths are provisional, and its ethos collective and messy. Yet the interaction it enables between writer and reader is unprecedented, visceral, and sometimes brutal. And make no mistake: it heralds a golden era for journalism.

The Blogging Journey
In the Spring of 2004 I had been pondering the idea of blogging because I loved to write and I thought it was the wave of the future. It was through the encouragement of one of my college student’s and good friends Jared Kleier that I made my entry into blogging. I think my first post was in the Summer of 2003 on the Blogger platform. It was a reflection on John 21, of which I erased shortly after because I didn’t quite have the courage to make myself so vulnerable, and my thoughts available for critique.

I eventually worked up the courage to post regularly and after 4 years of blogging I am approaching my 1,000 post (this is post 992). There have been many ups (getting linked by Hugh Hewitt which drove my traffic through the roof), as well as some downpoints (critizing John Piper and receiving a frenzy of comments for it). There have also been many new speaking and job opportunities from those who were exposed to my blog, as well as allowing me to have my first foray into the publishing world with a chapter in The New Media Frontier.

But those things are just icing on the cake. Blogging for me is really about a labor of love, taking risks with exposing and sharing my ideas, and connecting with others that I agree and disagree with through the medium of the internet. Most of all, blogging is about commitment, devotion, and consistency over a period of time. You don’t have to drive thousands of readers a day to your blog to be a successful blogger. Some of the best bloggers are those who share their life with their families and close friends through their writing. And most of all, it’s a record of how you have changed and grown as a person, thinker, etc. I have watched my blogging evolve over time (topics, length, commenters, blogroll, etc.), and it has been an illuminating reflection on my own evolution as a person.

Blogging has changed. In the early days I could break into the top 10,000 on Technorati, but now, I’m lucky if I can crack 70,000. Those were the early days of obsessing over numbers, traffic and ranking. And even though I still hope that people read my blog, I’m more driven by the idea of sharing my thoughts, passions and life with others…and that hopefully in the process we (the blogging community, commenters, etc.) can connect with one another and help change the world. Not as individuals, but as a community who is passionate about the ideas that we share and the convictions we have….all made possible through the medium of blogging.

Twitter is but 140 characters. Flickr is photos, perhaps with comments. And Facebook is hundreds of friends sharing life online together. But there is something powerful about putting words down and publishing them on a blog.

I will end this post with a quote from Andrew Sullivan’s article that I love:

Alone in front of a computer, at any moment, are two people: a blogger and a reader. The proximity is palpable, the moment human—whatever authority a blogger has is derived not from the institution he works for but from the humanness he conveys. This is writing with emotion not just under but always breaking through the surface. It renders a writer and a reader not just connected but linked in a visceral, personal way. The only term that really describes this is friendship. And it is a relatively new thing to write for thousands and thousands of friends.

Resources
Check out Technorati’s State of the Blogosphere 2008. Here is one telling quote, “The numbers vary but agree that blogs are here to stay.”

And check out Kirk Sexton’s new blog. Now that he just started it, he is wondering if he has to kill it already. I say no. Blog on Kirk.

Book Review: Tribes by Seth Godin

October 20, 2008 in Ministry-Theology with 2 Comments

You can find my book review of Tribes by Seth Godin over at Leadership Network’s book blog.

Check it out, Heretics Needed in the Church.

Becoming a Heretic on Church Ministry

October 20, 2008 in Ministry-Theology with 11 Comments

Heretic
Heretic, the one word that you never want to be associated with you as a Christian or ministry worker. OR IS IT?

Rather, maybe we need more heretics. Those challenging the status quo in Church. Just maybe we need to think more unorthodox thoughts when it comes to ministry. (Notice I said ministry, not theology; though there is a conversation there).

Of course, most people call others heretics when someone else’s views don’t align with theirs. Meaning, they think that they have a corner on the “right theology”, and the “right way to do ministry”, and of course everyone else is just wrong. I even have some friends I think who wish they could still burn heretics at the stake today…just to teach them a lesson and prove a point.

I know this is a serious word and I’m somewhat playing with it. But maybe Seth Godin is right, maybe we have been entrapped by the status quo, and been caught up in the trappings of Church culture, politics, hierarchy, etc. Godin’s idea of heretic goes beyond Church, but involves corporations, non-profits, politics and more.

Heretic & Ministry
But what I’m interested in is the idea of the heretic in ministry.

For argument sake, I’m not talking about heretic when it comes to theology. I’m not debating the orthodox views of the faith (virgin birth, death, resurrection, etc.), though I know people disagree on those. I’m interested in the role of the heretic who challenges the trappings of the Church. The facade, roles, hierarchical authority that is built over 1000′s of years of faith.

Is it possible that the Church culture has enslaved us, and keeps us from actually doing what our faith asks of us? So rather than living out our faith and theology, we are captured by the status quo. Reminds me very much of being caught in The Matrix and deciding which pill to swallow.

Godin says:

Challenging the status quo requires a committment, both public and private. It involves reaching out to others and putting yourideas on the line. (Or pinning your Ninety-five Theses to the church door). (pp. 49)

and later in the book, Godin says:

Religion and faith are often confused. Someone who opposes faith is called an atheist and widely reviled. But we don’t have a common word for someone who opposes a particular religion.

Heretic will have to do.

If faith is the foundation of a belief system, then religion is the facade and the landscaping. It’s easy to get caught up in the foibles of a corporate culture and the systems that have been built over time, but they have nothing at all to do with the faith that built the system in the first place.

Change is made by people, by leaders who are proud to be called heretics because their faith is never in question. (pp. 84)

Thinking Heretical Thoughts on Ministry
In the next several posts I would like to challenge, raise questions, debate some areas of Church ministry that need some unorthodox thinking in them. Maybe we need more heretics in our midst to help us re-think/re-imagine how the Church could be.

These are areas that I have struggled with a long time as I know many of you have, many of you are beginning to, and others will just think, well, that’s heretical thinking. I’m simply bringing them up to raise discussion and conversation, not because I have all the answers to these. That’s why I want your input.

  1. The Sermon: Primarily in its current form (1 person; usually a male; talking at people for 45 mins).
  2. Church Leadership: Primarily as it pertains to top-down, hierarchical, male driven committees.
  3. Worship (music): Primarily as it pertains to “the rock star”, performers on stage.
  4. Communication: Primarily in its top-down, non-inclusive/non-participatory of the Church body.

There are more, but those 4 are enough for me to look at.  If you have others that you think should be on the list, add them in the comment section and we can explore them together.

What would you add?

Most Thorough Review Yet of “Jesus Wants to Save Christians: A Manifesto for the Church in Exile”

October 17, 2008 in Ministry-Theology with 6 Comments

Ben Witherington has really outdone himself this time, with one of the most thorough book reviews I have come across of Rob Bell and Dan Golden’s new book, Jesus Wants to Save Christians: A Manifesto for the Church in Exile.

I’m a huge “fan” of Rob Bell’s teachings and writings, and have even had the privilege of hosting him at UCLA on his Sex God Tour a year and a half ago. So I have definitely been waiting for this book to arrive, especially since the topic is so important and I think many are fearful of tackling it. I look forward to reading the book, but for now enjoy a couple of quotes from Witherington’s review, and then read it in its entirety:

But let the buyer beware— anyone brave enough to take on and milk the All American sacred cows of greed and sex are bound to get to some other nice little non-controversial golden calves like ‘Christians and politics, or Christians and war’, or Christians and social justice, or Christians and the oppressed and the poor– right? Right.

and

The book begins with a retelling of the tragic tale of Cain and Abel which gives the authors the opportunity to suggest that this story is about all of us—somewhere East of Eden, trying to build a city and a civilization outside of Paradise and in a fallen world. Ain’t it the truth. But this book is especially about the indigenization of human falleness in America particularly, and how our behavior as an Empire, in some ways much like the Roman Empire, is a particular manifestation of what is deeply wrong with human society, something which is more like the behavior of Cain, than Abel.

One of the roots of the problem in America is pointed out at the very outset of the book is put in these terms—“A Christian should get very nervous when the flag and the cross start holding hands. This is not a romance we want to encourage”(p. 18). Indeed, if pushed far enough it becomes a form of idolatry, the ultimate fallen behavior. And of course Bell and Golden are right. When you are spending a trillion dollars in Iraq and untold billions here in America for Homeland In-Security, and invest 50 billion in one plane with helicopter features as a ‘better weapon of mass destruction’ and of course it still is not making us safe, indeed it makes us feel less secure in many cases not more, isn’t it time to ask—Is fear or faith dictating our dominant national behavior in such matters? What’s wrong with this picture from a Christian point of view? At least Bell and Golden are brave enough to ask the right questions about all of this, even though doubtless they are going to be slammed as unpatriotic, rather like Jews were by the Roman Empire when they refused to worship at the altars of the Emperor cult.

I love that last line, “At least Bell and Golden are brave enough to ask the right questions about all of this, even though doubtless they are going to be slammed as unpatriotic, rather like Jews were by the Roman Empire when they refused to worship at the altars of the Emperor cult.”

It is amazing to me that when we question American values and political party loyalties we are questioned as being unpatriotic or ungrateful…even if at the cost of sacrificing our values as Christians. My friend is right, “We are often more American than Christian.” Thank God for those who call that into question.

Check out their website Jesus Wants to Save Christians.

You Might Be A Social Media Addict If……Setting Boundaries On Social Media

October 13, 2008 in Ministry-Theology with 23 Comments

Social Media Boundaries
A few weeks ago I started talking about boundaries, but as if you haven’t noticed already, I sometimes have a hard time staying on one topic too long.

So let me circle back to the idea of boundaries around our social media. Otherwise, what parameters do you put around your social media use that will help prevent you from getting swallowed up by it, going insane or letting it completely dominating your life?

What Is A Boundary?
Most simply defined, a boundary is, the line or plane indicating the limit or extent of something.

So is there a line or plane that indicates the limit or extent to which you will engage, or allow social media to take over your life? What is it? How do you even know if social media is taking over your life?

Do You Have Social Media Boundaries In Your Life? Quiz Time
Here is my little quiz. Answering yes to any or all of these tells me it has taken over. Keep in mind that to come up with questions means that I have probably violated some or all of them. So know you are in good company. And I know there are more, so feel free to contribute in the comment section. Also, remember, social media and using it is not bad in and of itself, it’s when it takes over facets of our lives.

  1. You hop on the web to do a simple task, but you still find yourself online hours later, addicted, doing something completely different than your initial task?
  2. When you are with your family you have thoughts of, “I can’t wait until they all get in bed, then finally I can post my blog?”
  3. If you don’t blog, Twitter or message on Facebook you feel as if you are letting others down, or you feel left out?  You feel less relevant?
  4. When you are with your wife at dinner you check incoming messages or play with your phone, even if it seems like an appropriate time to do so (like when she’s at the restroom).
  5. On your day off you can’t walk into the next room or leave the house without your cell phone?
  6. You find yourself Twittering about experiences as they are happening, rather than just living the experience (i.e. athletic events, concerts, your children’s events, baby delivery, etc, etc.)
  7. When you go to dinner with your friends you look around and all  of you are on your phones texting, Twittering, etc….even if that’s now expected and accepted, it is what you are all doing? Continue Reading…

Sometimes Talking Is Better Than Doing…Thoughts by Slavoj Zizek

October 10, 2008 in Ministry-Theology with 0 Comments

Thanks to the influence of my good friend Wess, I have been doing a little more reading up on Slavoj Zizek. Wikipedia refers to him as a “Post-Marxist sociologist, philosopher, and cultural critic”…and he’s also a psychoanalyst among many other things. In fact, last week I watched the documentary Zizek on the Sundance Channel. I have actually been interested in his work for some time, but am just now beginning to do read some of his writing.

Zizek had an interesting post in the London Review of Books concerning the economic situation. And though I always don’t agree with everything he is saying, I really like a lot of what he does have to say.

H(at)T(ip) to Wess for sending me the article Don’t Just Do Something, Talk by Zizek. It is worth your read. So please check it out in it’s entirety.

I do agree with much of his premise of the article and am curious about your thoughts. But he is right. Sometimes we are too quick into rushing to doing something without actually thinking about what we are doing. And I think the handling of the economic crisis is just that case. People will argue that if we didn’t rush things would get worse. And that could be true. But the reality is, that by our rushing in without thinking through all of our actions potentially sets us up for something worse I’m afraid.

Faced with a disaster over which we have no real influence, people will often say, stupidly, ‘Don’t just talk, do something!’ Perhaps, lately, we have been doing too much. Maybe it is time to step back, think and say the right thing. True, we often talk about doing something instead of actually doing it – but sometimes we do things in order to avoid talking and thinking about them. Like quickly throwing $700 billion at a problem instead of reflecting on how it came about.

On 23 September, the Republican senator Jim Bunning called the US Treasury’s plan for the biggest financial bailout since the Great Depression ‘un-American’:

Someone must take those losses. We can either let the people who made bad decisions bear the consequences of their actions, or we can spread that pain to others. And that is exactly what the Secretary proposes to do: take Wall Street’s pain and spread it to the taxpayers . . . This massive bailout is not the solution, it is financial socialism, and it is un-American.

And I will leave you with this quote. Sometimes I do wonder if we actually, really do want to be free, or if that is too scary of a proposition. We say we do, but in reality we are too dependent upon things like money, politics, Wall St., etc.

I wonder if we (the American people) in attempting to avoid the pain of our decisions, we are actually setting up future pain for our children and the generations to come?

We have reached the third degree where we devote our intelligence to anticipating what average opinion expects the average opinion to be.‘ We are forced to make choices without having the knowledge that would enable us to make them; or, as John Gray has put it: ‘We are forced to live as if we were free.’
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