…Links for Your Linking Pleasure 34…

Halloween: Yes or No?
One person argues that the Puritanical fear of the occult and the general evangelical hatred towards the Roman Catholic Church is what originally created the fear of Halloween. Perhaps, he argues, we have come to believe our own propaganda?

A Theology of the Land
tallskinnykiwi talks about and quotes Christian farmers who are doing what they can to bring justice and equality to what Paul called “the whole created order.”

Pray for Glenn Beck
He surely needs it.

New Smashing Pumpkins album to be Free
If you love Smashing Pumpkins, you’d better read this.

The Jesus we Never Knew
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Church Marketing

In Bill Easum’s recent post, he talks about six tactical mistakes churches make.

In later clarifying the second mistake (don’t do announcements at the beginning), Easum says:

…announcements at the beginning of a worship service so deadly- because they violate every media tenet as well slap as our culture in the face.  Most younger people today do whatever they can to avoid watching a commercial on TV. Imagine what a media savvy twenty-something feels when subjected to five or ten minutes of commercials up front before they have the chance to decide if they like what’s happening in your worship.

And if you say, “That’s tough. We don’t bow to the culture,” you’re missing the point. The way to be counter-cultural is not by intentionally turning people away with your methodology. The way to be counter-cultural is to make the worship so appealing that the Holy Spirit has time to speak into their lives and transform their hearts into followers of Christ. You can’t do that if you run them off at the beginning of the service.

I don’t know Easum personally.  He seems to have reasonably valid credentials for talking about church growth and church marketing, but I wonder if we have lost something in this message of making the Holy Spirit “appealing.”

There is nothing all that “appealing” to me about Jesus.  He didn’t hold nice services and invite lots of people to hear him.  In fact, he tried very often to turn people away or keep what he did a secret.  What do we do with this Jesus in light of modern church marketing?

I’m not sure I have the answers, but I would appreciate any thoughts on the matter.

Teaching Ownership to Students

Picture from flickr

I was talking to Sarah recently about how to teach ownership to students and children.  I have no children of my own, but I do (eventually) want to teach in some capacity.  I have my history credential, but there are no jobs this year.  The question remains how teach Christ’s message to children and in the same breath teach them about ownership?

The Christmas photo reminds me of many Christmases where my brothers and I would fight over who gets to light the candles at Advent.  It also brings back many memories of fights over shared toys and anger when my brothers would destroy “my” legos or when games on the super nintendo would get erased and we would have to start over.  Needless to say, I was taught from a very young age the idea of ownership and sharing.  But how would Jesus have us live and think of ownership?

It is here that I turn to the book of Luke (9:3-6):

He said to them, ‘Take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money—not even an extra tunic. Whatever house you enter, stay there, and leave from there. Wherever they do not welcome you, as you are leaving that town shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.’ They departed and went through the villages, bringing the good news and curing diseases everywhere.

Jesus sends the disciples out with nothing and they are required to depend on others.  It is quite a thing to lose your independence in America.  I have only seen a few people really lose it in my lifetime and it would seem now they have no choice but to obey him.  I don’t think this passage is talking to everyone for all times, but I do think there is a kind of message in the text that reminds us that the “independence” we often talk about in America is not what Jesus had for the apostles.  He taught them utter dependence on the communities they were to live in.  Perhaps we would be wise to follow in those footsteps.

Perhaps we would be wise to depend and trust one another in a Christ filled community.

Perhaps we would be wise to play together in a way that ownership becomes secondary to friendship.

Perhaps we would be wise to begin the project of really getting to know each other.

On the Shores of Vietnam: A Modern Day Parable (2)

[The following is a parable; for those who don't know the definition of parable is a fictional story designed to impart some deeper truth beyond the story.  Comment on the story after reading explaining how the story makes you feel.]

Not long ago, I heard a story of a Vietnamese leader of a city.  His son was getting married and he wanted to throw a huge party for him.  He owned a huge brewery, and gave his hired hands the day off to hand out invitations to all his friends and family.

The servants passed out over a thousand invitations, but the majority of them called and said they couldn’t make it.  One of his servants was even mistreated by the people he invited.  They began to beat him with a baseball bat.

The leader was so angry at the shame brought on his family that he called up one of the ruling military junta.  He showed the junta the list of guests he had invited to the party and said he would provide $100 for each head brought to him dead.  The city was in an uproar as the junta descended upon the city.

All of the thousand people on the list were found and brought out to the public square.  Their families were forced to watch with their eyes open as the military shot them through the head and burned down their houses.  All of them were found and the military junta made $100,000 in fees from the rich leader.

“I will show them how it feels to be rejected and truly shamed,” the leader replied after he had given the junta their pay.  “I will bring in the disgraced and the downtrodden.  They will come to my son’s wedding and then all those who should have come, but didn’t, will be left outside in the cold.”

And it was so.

The servants brought the homeless, the destitute, and the sick to his son’s wedding.  One woman was angered to see that the leader of the city had brought a convicted rapist into the party and a convicted drug dealer.  He opened up the jails and let the worst criminals, the ones who had raped and sexually abused children, sit in the front row.  This was the way of the leader of the city.  They had all been given the best clothes to wear, no matter what they had done.

Suddenly, however, he noticed that one man was still dressed in filthy clothes.

“What are you doing here?” the leader of the city asked.

The man said nothing.

“You dare to come into my son’s wedding without proper attire?  Get OUT!”

And at that the servants grabbed him and through him out into the cold.

This is like the kingdom of heaven.

He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

……links for your linking [DIS?]pleasure 18…..

Usually I like to put comics in my links, but today I felt it would be inappropriate.  The links in this installment are not going to be fun interesting links.  I hope that they disturbe you into action.

1.  Human Trafficking:  It’s real and we are complicit if we just let it happen on our watch in this global world.

2.  Should the real recipients of aid and money be women?

3.  Why do we want so much stuff?

4.  Will we really go if God calls us?

5.  Jesus turns the world upside-down.

6.  Is our view of Jesus incomplete?  Perhaps Marcus Borg can tell us why.

…..links for your linking pleasure 16……

1.  The Wall Street Santa:

2.  Mark talks about using IM as a professor.  I applaud anyone in higher eduction who is using technology to help their students.

3.  What would you think of adding an Hindu Snowman in a Nativity scene?

4.  Tim Keller on the one gospel.

5.  I think that Americans need to think before they act:

6.  James McGrath’s review on The Religious Case Against Belief.

7.  Was it a Silent Night?

8.  What do you think of Caroline Kennedy going for the Senate Seat (what is her platform)?

9.  Brandon talking about the Christian response to shoe throwing.

10.  If you are in the area, you should think about going to Common Root 2009.  I can’t make it because of school and the distance.

11.  A good post on Sex and Money.

12.  Obama talks about how to judge his success.

And Remember:

Karl Barth and the Question of Obedience

I have just finished reading The Call to Discipleship by Karl Barth (you can see my review of the book here).  It is a succint read into the thoughts of Barth on the question of what it means to be a disciple of Christ.

Barth begins by saying about the man who said to Jesus he would follow him wherever he went (Luke 9:57-58).  Barth says:

He is obviously one who has presumed to do this on his own initiative.  And his [Jesus'] answer is the terrible saying about the foxes that have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, ‘but the son of man–whom he is going to follow–hath not where to lay his head.’  He does not realize that it is that he thinks he can choose.  He does not know how terrible is the venture in which he commits himself in the execution of this choice.

No one of themselves can or will imagine that this is their way, or take this way.  What Jesus wills with his ‘Follow me” can be chosen only in obedience to his call: ‘Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water’ (Matt 14:28).  Without being bidden by Christ, he could not do this.  It has also been noted that there can be no conditions.  The man mentioned [above]… lacked true discipleship, not merely because he offered it to Jesus as a matter of his own choice, but because he also made a condition: “Let me first say farewall to those at my home.”

I have never been a fan of Calvinism (and that is not necessarily what Barth is arguing for here), but I think that the idea of choice goes to show how well off we are.  A famous phrase in America is that we want to change the world.  As with almost all phrases which have been repeated over and over again in an American mantra, they mean almost nothing.  How do these people want to change the world?  Perhaps some would say they want to change the world ‘for the better,” but to what better end do they wish to change the world and why do they think they have the answer as to why their world is best?  Choice and change are all a result of comsumeristic tendencies that have killed many disciples in America.  At this time of Christmas, we need to consider how we might obey without putting conditions on our obedience.

Prayer of the Day

We join in with Shane Claiborne and Nathaniel in praying this.  We ask for a divine liturgy to guide our lives and our rituals throughout the day to be filled with meaning because they are centered around you.  Give us your spirit this day to guide us, give us our daily bread to sustain us, and give us our daily Word to invoke the fear of God in all things and in all places, for you make all things holy.  We join in prayer with Mustard Seed Associates that we would not follow the comsumeristic paths set before us, but would choose an alternative lifestyle that gives way to truth and justice in our world.

…follow these links…

There is more talk of Amazon Kindle on the web (thanks to Jim West for pointing me to it).  I think it is important for people to be up to date on issues of the e-paper revolution (see the BBC’s comments here).  Microsoft is no longer in this race to try and compete with google books.  Let me make a few predictions based on this latest information:

1) The richest person will be the one who combines the iPhone with the kindle and can do it at low cost.

2) Google and apple will team up to create an online library that can be accessed through their cellular device.  There will be previews of books and the ability to buy books online.

3) There will be more decentralized books being written and desiminated via cellular devices than ever before.  Writing will become more free-form in nature.  Novels will be writen for niche audiences and complex artistic books will be much cheaper to make and print for visual enjoyment (i.e. comics)

4) Just as news has become individualized, books will also become individualized and the amount of books will increase because of the relative decrease in start-up costs.

In other news….

1) Some are arguing that evolution can inspire faith.

2) Jesus manifesto is dealing with issues of dispensantionalism and eschatology.  Sam argues on there that the dispensationalist view of the second coming holds a paradox: the first time Jesus comes to save the prostitute and the second time he comes to kill them.  He struggles with how to make the two different missions of Jesus come together.  He brings up the point that our end-times eschatology influences of practice of church (for the intellecutal: ecclesiology).  Often a dispensationalist theology, he argues, makes us unconcerned with the present world.  Do you agree?

3) Visit here for up to date news on decisions for Obama’s cabinet.  I personally would like to see Colin Powell in his cabinet. What do others think about this?  Some think John Kerry will be the next secretary of state?  Really?  What do you think?

4) The New York Times writes on the difficulties Obama will face after his inaguration.  What is the main issue that you want to see Obama address in his first one hundred days?

5) FFF argues that education is a socialist regime.  I argued in my letter that Obama should provide more reforms and more resources for schools, but do you think the federal government should just take a step back instead and let states deal with these issues?

6) Brian Walsh argues if Barack Obama can be a post-imperialist president.

Prayer of the Day

Holy and divine God,

You, the most holy and high father, to whom we pray are the God of the universe.  We praise your holy name and ask, through the infusing power of your spirit and the word of your Son, to grant our requests today.

We pray for belfast, that you would show all people in the city that you are a god of peace.  We pray that the soldiers being welcomed home would be welcomed peaceably, and that those protesting the war would also be greeted peaceably.  Lord, we want to see your kingdom of peace reach to all corners of the world by the witness of your holy saints proclaiming the message of Jesus Christ–the ultimate willingness death on a cross that subverted an empire of control and the resurrection that broke open the powers of empire with pure light of the Father, the Son and the holy spirit.

We pray for those in the margins, that their carnival will go well and that this community would be able to express the pure and powerful light of Christ to those living in South Central.  We know that you want to do a poweful work there.

We ask that you would take care of Sarah while she is in China.

I ask for a pure and powerful gospel to reach the whole world through the divine light of Jesus Christ, or perhaps, to show them what is already there.

We also concur with John’s prayer list.