It’s been a while since I posted a photo on Friday here. I was able to get out to Palisades Kepler Park yesterday to take some photos and enjoy some of the beautiful fall weather we’ve been having this week.
This is my favorite of the three photos I posted over at Flickr:
Sorry I missed “Monday Matters” but since I’m on vacation Monday just didn’t seem to matter that much! But I do have some things to point you toward for the Wednesday Roundup:
1.) This seems like a pretty good idea for a blog series: Worship for an Emerging Church. I’m looking forward to reviewing some of the music that Mike highlights.
2.) Is Jesus the only way? I thought this was a fairly insightful way to rephrase the conversation.
3.) Stanley Hauerwas doesn’t fail to challenge in this thought on what it might mean to have an effective position against abortion.
4.) Worship services at Knox sure could be a whole lot different.
5.) One of my favorite photobloggers has a great picture for fall.
I was invited to be part of a blog tour reviewing Ed Cyzewski’s new book “Coffeehouse Theology.” For more information about the author and a list of other reviews check out Ed’s blog in.a.mirror.dimly.
I will start out by first saying that Cyzewski’s book doesn’t break any new ground. What this book does is serve as a primer on “doing theology in a postmodern world.” Now, if that particular phrase doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to you, I think it will after you read his book.
The author offers a thorough and yet informal and easy to grasp overview of world and philosophical history to help us see how we ended up in the midst of a post-modern worldview. He also shows us how the way we see and think about our Christian faith (specifically an evangelical faith, which is his viewpoint) has been shaped by culture, the events of history, and the perspectives of philosophy.
Ed’s concern is that the way we think about God must first be formed by scripture, but then fleshed out and broadened beyond our own narrow perspective by listening to other voices of faith such as the ancient church and the global church.
Very helpful after each chapter is a list of resources for further reading and study. They are a very good place to start, though I personally would like to see the inclusion of some more liberal (especially in the biblical resource section) as well as female voices in his various resource lists.
If you have been formed in the evangelical faith and wonder what post-modernism has to do with any of it, then this is the book for you. It will help you think about your faith in new ways that will serve you well as you seek to share that faith with others.
So, for a while now I’ve been twittering, and I have come to really enjoy it. The other day, I was talking with some colleagues who don’t quite “get it.” So, I thought I’d offer a few observations from my experience. Now for those of you who don’t have any idea about what twitter is, you might want to take a look at this video.
Keeping up with blog friends:
One of the reasons I started twittering was to keep up with friends I’ve accumulated through the blog world. If a blogger I knew had a twitter feed, then I added them to my follow list. This became even more meaningful after attending our denomination’s GA and meeting some of my blog friends in person. Now I not only have a face and a voice, but through twitter I have a peek into what their life is like.
Expanding my connection to the community:
After a while, I realized that I could follow some folks locally. Using TwitterLocal I plugged in my zipcode and discovered that there were a bunch of local twitterers out there. Following them has been really fun and has helped me feel much more connected to the community than I was before. The local folks I follow vary: a bunch of them work for the Gazette, a few are Coe college students, some are techie folks, and a few are pastors too, like me.
Expanding my ministry outreach:
By no means was this my primary goal, but some of my local twitter followers have told me that they have read a sermon or two that I’ve posted on my blog. Some of these folks attend churches, others do not. Regardless, in some sense, I feel a bit of a responsibility as a ‘pastor’ to those I follow or who follow me. I like too, that folks who are not associated with a church can see me, through my twitter updates, as just an ordinary joe who also happens to be a minister. I see this as one way of breaking down the all too formidable barrier between the ’secular’ and the ’sacred.’
It’s like having your own panel of personal advisors:
So I was trying to figure out what I should buy for a surge protector - I twittered my question, and three or four friends responded with their product recommendations. I was having trouble working through a scripture passage - I twittered about it, and two or three folks responded with some suggestions and even some websites that pointed me to some ideas. It’s like being the President and having your Cabinet to turn to for the advice you need.
Finally, it’s just plain fun:
Want to know the best way to follow the presidential debates and other significant events as they unfold? Follow your twitter friends. It’s like having an instant party right in your living room. The banter and commentary on twitter as the debates raged on was just plain fun to be part of.
Try it out:
If you are interested, I re-issue Adam Walker Cleaveland’s call to try it for a month, and add me as your friend. I will tell you that you do have to work at it in order to make it worth while. You can’t just update once a day, or check your friend’s updates every other day. You’ve got to make it a regular habit.
Finally, something that makes twittering a whole lot easier and fun is to use a third party application like twhirl (it’s what I use) or tweetdeck. These applications act like instant messengers….retrieving your friend’s updates (almost instantaneously) so that you don’t have to actually go to the twitter webpage.
Go ahead, try it out!
1.) Matt at Glocal Christianity frequently points to some great sources for quality, global Christian art. In this post he points to Japanese Christian artist Sadao Watanabe.
2.) Be There…a challenge to those who struggle with repetitive prayer.
3.) Tony Jones challenges the notion that America is an “empire.” Not sure I totally agree…just because we don’t have an emperor doesn’t mean we don’t have the traits characteristic of an empire. It’s worth considering his thoughts, and the comments that follow.
4.) This is pretty funny: Are you ready for Feb 17, 2009?
5.) Today’s photo captures what we all should take the time to do this fall.
First, I am changing my blogging theme for Mondays from “Meaty Monday” to “Monday Matters.” I never did care for the original title of Monday’s blogging theme. I think the new one sounds a whole lot better.
This last Saturday our Presbytery held a “Leadership Summit.” We were fortunate enough to have Carol Howard Merritt, author of “The Tribal Church” and blogger extraordinaire, provide us with two excellent keynote presentations (plus some workshops) about her work. As far as I could tell, her presentations were very well received by those in attendance.
I also had the chance to give a workshop I called “Church 2.0.” My presentation dovetailed and built on the work of Adam Walker Cleaveland and Shawn Coons. There was very fruitful discussion in both groups I presented to.
I am providing the following resources for anyone to use as they see fit:
* A list of church2.0 web resources.
* A pdf file of the church2.0 presentation.
This sermon was preached on Oct 12, 2008. The sermon text was Matthew 22:1-14
I don’t know about you, but I’ve really been enjoying the comic strip Baby Blue this past week.
In a panel from early this week, Zoe and Hammie, asked their mom if she would come outside and play with them. The kids were so surprised when she said yes, that Hammie asked his sister, “Do you think she remembers how?”
Reflecting on Hammie’s question, the Mom said to herself, “Maybe I should cut back on the housework for a while.”
I think that’s a pretty good commentary on how many of us live our lives.
After all, deep down we know that one of the most important things is spending good quality time with our kids. We know we should take time out to play with them and work on building quality relationships. We want them to know we are always there for them and that we will be present to them when they need us.
We all know that. And yet, like Wanda in Baby Blues, we get caught up in the busy-ness of life. We let other things demand our time and attention. We allow our jobs, all those household tasks and chores, and the things we think we need to get done get in the way of what’s really important.
Sorry for the pun. This was taken a few weeks ago and is best viewed large.
Ran across this funny story - warning: preacher’s humor employed here - about this Sunday’s lectionary passage from good preacher.com:
A few years ago, at the Nashville Festival of Homiletics, Tom Long told this story. He, Fred Craddock and Barbara Brown Taylor were sitting in the stands at a baseball game in Atlanta when suddenly the ushers descended on a man seated a few rows in front of them.
They argued back and forth with him for a few moments, and then, to the surprise of everyone in the vicinity, took the man by the arms and frog-marched him out of the stadium.
No one knew why the ushers had targeted this man; no one had ever seen anything like it. Everyone just sat in stunned silence, our three preachers among them. Then Fred Craddock shook his head, gestured at the empty seat, and said to his friends, “Must not have had a wedding garment.”
1.) Michael Kruse points out that from the very beginning there were warnings about possible economic problems from extending mortgages into risky pools.
2.) This comic sure is a zinger.
3.) Here is another perspective on the west’s economic crisis, from the Ethiopian Church.
4.) While I don’t have any objection to a ‘Green Bible,‘ I do wonder why it is so popular to publish special interest edition bibles these days.
5.) Here is a nice review of Scot McKnight’s new book, the Blue Parakeet, about reading and interpreting the bible in a post-modern world.
6.) It’s fall around these parts, so here is an autumnal photo for your enjoyment.
This sermon was preached on Oct 5, 2008. The sermon text was Exodus 16:1-15
I don’t know about you, but I’ve been doing quite a bit of worrying over the past several weeks. And, I am embarrassed to say that one of the biggest causes of concern for me has been baseball…
My team, the Milwaukee Brewers, took me on quite a roller coaster ride over the last couple of weeks of the season. I think I lost most of the rest of what remains of my hair, last week as the Brewers fought for their first playoff spot since 1982.
The post-season hasn’t helped much. With two horrible outings in Philadelphia under their belt, the brew crew finally won a game last night to keep their chances alive and to force a Game #4. (which begins at 12:05 today so you can count on a short sermon…)
Now I want you to be honest, how many of you had a late night last night watching your Cubs? Well, I know that what I’ve gone through is nothing compared to what you Cub fans have been through this last week.
This year, they looked really good, like nothing was gonna get in their way. But now one of their best seasons ever has totally gone up in flames, in what was a total collapse in the post-season.
This sermon was preached on Sept 28, 2008. The text was Matthew 21: 23-32
Throughout his earthly ministry, Jesus told lots of different stories and parables. As a kid who grew up in the church, the parable from today’s text is probably the one that stuck in my mind the most.
Back then, I may have heard the story something like this:
A dad with two sons went to the one of them and said, “Would you please go out and mow the lawn today?” The son responded, “Yeah right, dad, I ain’t got time to do that today, my friends and I are planning to go out later.”
Later in the day, the son changed his mind and went out and mowed the lawn.
The dad went to his other son and said the same thing. The son responded, “Sure Dad, I’ll go out and mow the lawn, as soon as I get done playing this game of Grand Theft Auto.”
The day came and went but he never went out to mow the lawn.
Well, come to think of it, we didn’t have a PS2 or 3 back then. So it was probably Asteroids or PacMan, on an old Atari set, that was distraction. But you get the point.
Here are a few links for your enjoyment:
2.) What would you preach if the economy were to truly collapse?
3.) Some thoughts on becoming missional.
4.) I’ve marked these to listen to later, but I like the idea: Testimonies on “How I can be a part of what God is doing.”
5.) Here is your photo for the week.
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