the church geek

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.

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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.

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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.

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Here are a few links for your enjoyment:

1.) Where is your trust?

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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1.) Jenell Paris, a blogger I ran across a while ago and whose voice I’ve come to appreciate, offers a post on faith and grief.

2.) Christine Sine offers a few reflections on a book she is reading about the crucifixion - the question the book raises is “if early Christian art does not focus on the crucifixion, why are we so preoccupied with the cross today?” I’ll reserve comment on the hypothesis until I read the book, but I do like the conclusion that Sine offers.

3.) Rob, a friend from seminary days, is offering the chance for you to work on the world’s first open source sermon. Interesting idea. It will be great to see how it comes together.

4.) Want a simple way to explain the faith? This is a pretty good start. It sure beats the bridge diagram.

5.) Love this picture. For some reason it looks sort of old-timey, like something my grandmother might have had on her wall.

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This the first sermon is a six part sermon series on discipleship questions. The text for this sermon was: Matthew 7: 21-29. I’m a little slow in posting it, this was preached on June 1st.

As you probably know by now, I like to read the comic strips in the Gazette. One that has quickly become my favorite is called Frazz. It follows the story of a fitness freak who is a twenty-something janitor at a local elementary school.

This week one of the young students at the school was searching for a four leaf clover, hoping to find a little luck. Well, on Friday, she finally found her lucky four leaf clover. So, she decided to show it to Mrs. Olsen, her teacher who is a bit of a curmudgeon.

As you might expect, Mrs. Olsen responds to the student’s excitement and enthusiasm over her discovery by dousing water on it. Mrs. Olsen says, “Bah, I don’t believe in luck. I believe in work.”

In the next frame, the young student and Frazz are talking about this incident and the student says to Frazz, “Apparently buying 30 lotto tickets a week is “work.”

I love it. That young student has connected the dots between what her teacher says she believes and what her teacher actually does.

She knows that Mrs. Olsen buys lottery tickets, perhaps in the hopes of being freed from her job. And while Mrs. Olsen says she believes in work, by her behavior the student can see that she really believes or hopes in luck.

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This is the third sermon in a series of 6 questions on discipleship. The texts for this sermon were: Acts 4: 32-37; 9: 26-30; 11: 19-26.

As I was preparing my sermon this week, I discovered that June 28th marked the beginning of the “Year of Saint Paul.”

Starting this last week, the Roman Catholic Church is taking an entire year to celebrate one of the most prominent figures in the New Testament. They chose this year of all years because it’s as close as anyone can guess to the 2000th anniversary of Paul’s Birthday.

The Apostle Paul probably deserves an entire year of celebration, because when it comes to prominent figures in the New Testament, he is usually the first one who comes to mind. After all, many of the great books of the New Testament, like Romans and Galatians, were written by him. He also plays a big part of the story in the book of Acts.

In fact, a few years ago, I read an article in some magazine like Time or Newsweek that featured a list of history’s most influential people. I remember the article, because I was surprised to see that the Apostle Paul made that list while Jesus Christ did not.

The article defended its choice of Paul over Jesus saying that without Paul’s influence, the church as we know it would probably not exist today. Without the Apostle Paul, its quite possible that no one today would even know who Jesus Christ was.

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A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
A deeply sorrowful story, with a few slivers of hope. This story is not quite a good as the author’s first book (The Kite Runner), but it is still a richly detailed and compelling work set in war torn Afghanistan.

Jesus for President: Politics for Ordinary Radicals by Shane Claiborne

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
Not done yet with it, but the best part of this book is the eye-opening interpretations of scripture, especially key new testament texts. The weakness so far, is that it fails to deal with the issue of violence in the Old Testament, glossing over it on its way to achieve its narrative purpose. Still this is an important, compelling, and ultimately convicting work about who our true Lord really is.


View all my reviews.

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Life’s been really busy this week, so things are behind schedule a bit and I didn’t have time or energy for a ‘meaty monday.’ But, here are a few links for you today:

1.) I’ve not looked at this thoroughly, but I really like the idea. It comes from the episcopal church and it is called “Put Your Faith to Work.” I discovered this by way of the Church Marketing Sucks website.

2.) My wife sent this link to me a long time ago, but I finally got around to checking it out. It’s a sort of a cyber-devotional site called d365. Looks like a good way to chill out and get re-centered on God.

3.) I’m always interested in making better use of electronic tools to help manage my work and productivity. Well, the smart pastor has done it again by telling us how he uses “Sandy,” his personal assistant, to keep track of what he’s doing. I’ve been meaning to explore ways to use Jott too, so hopefully when I get a free moment I’ll be thinking about ways to take the Smart Pastor’s advice.

4.) It’s not a wednesday roundup without a picture to point you towards.

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I realize it’s Tuesday and this “Meaty Monday” comes about 24 hours too late, we took a day off yesterday to rest up a bit after a busy Holy Week.

I’ve decided to wade in a little bit into the controversy between Barack Obama and his long-time minister Rev. Jeremiah Wright. These are just a few loosely connected thoughts from my perspective:

1.) I can’t remember who it was that said this, but there is a popular saying out there that the preacher’s job is to “comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable.” I take that to mean that we shouldn’t always be in a position of agreement with our minister. He or she should be saying things that we may not agree with and that will challenge us.

2.) While I think Rev. Wright used a poor choice of words in saying “God damn America,” the whole of his message, from Sunday to Sunday, is what really needs to be judged not just a sound bite or two taken out of context. Also, it’s not just the preacher’s words that need to be evaluated. The preacher is more than words, the preacher is the sum of his/her character. How do they love their people? How does the message of their life compliment the words from the pulpit? Those are the questions we need to be asking. It’s quite possible to disagree with things said from the pulpit and still respect, love and stand up for your minister because of the integrity of the message and the entire package of the minister’s life.

3.) I had the chance to hear Dr. Wright preach a year or two ago at Dubuque Seminary. I walked away thinking “Wow, that sure was a challenge.” He said some things from the pulpit that I found difficult to hear and I am sure that others found difficult as well, especially considering the fact that he was preaching to a predominantly white, middle class, and male audience. But I also came away thinking that most of what he said was truthful, honest, spot on, and needed to be said.

4.) And speaking of being truthful, I’m going to raise some hackles with this one: Obama’s church is often criticized for being “Unashamedly Black and Unapologetically Christian.” What’s the big deal??? I mean think about most churches in America: Aren’t most of our churches “Unashamedly White?” they just don’t go around advertising it. Really, now, who is being more honest and truthful?

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1.) The most recent Decently and In Order podcast picked up my Techno-Sabbath post as a topic of conversation. They discussed their various perspectives on some of the issues I highlighted.

2.) In case you were wondering, Paul Wolfowitz really IS a shady character. My good friend Mark writes of an encounter with Wolfowitz in Rwanda.

3.) My favorite preacher, United Methodist Bishop William Willimon, by way of the Internet Monk, offers an interesting perspective on the story of Jesus and Zaccheus.

4.) I ran across this list of 100 spiritually significant films, but realize I’ve only seen about twenty percent of them and only one of the top ten.

5.) Hillary Clinton offers a few of her perspectives on faith and is promptly taken to task in the comment section for not affirming the sole significance of belief in Christ for salvation. Once again proving the difficulties of being a politician and holding nuanced positions on things. Talk amongst yourselves…

6.) Here’s another pretty picture for your enjoyment.

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My church has never had a Lenten study before at least not in recent years. I’ve been pondering offering something, but I’m not quite sure what that would be. I know of a handful of folks who have been dealing with issues of forgiveness and wondered about offering an in depth course related to that, since I think studies around lent ought to be about some of the more meaty issues of our faith.

I’m wondering what have you done in the past and what has worked in your congregation?

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I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas! Even with a lot of travel over the next week to visit family, I’ve somehow managed to find a few minutes of blogging time today to offer up my Weekly Roundup:

1.) I really love this Franciscan Benediction that Tony Jones offers as a Christmas Blessing.

2.) Nick Norelli offers an interesting reflection on the atoning work of Christ, asking the question what would have happened if Jesus had been killed as a baby during Herod’s slaughter of the infants reported in Matthew? Reminds of my seminary professor who constantly stressed that Christ’s atoning work was comprised of much more than just his crucifixion.

3.) John Armstrong offers some reflections on Denzel Washington’s faith.

4.) Project 365 wraps up for me in less than a week. Julie Bogart, who encouraged me to start this whole project in the first place, offers some reflections on the impact the project has had on her life. And Ampersand 365, who had some pretty amazing pictures herself over the year, highlights some of her favorite pictures from other 365ers.

5.) I’ve not had a chance to listen to any of the these yet, but I recently managed to come across an amazing archive of sermons available in MP3 format. Some names: John Buchanan, William Willimon, Tim Keller, Barbara Brown Taylor, Joanna Adams.

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I know I pointed to this already, but I’m going to do it again: Rob Bell has a wonderful sermon series on faith and environment. It is called “God is Green” and is both theological and highly practical.

I think he should put this into a book and call it “Earth God.”

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A fascinating and grace filled reflection on the life of Tammy Faye which makes me think that, perhaps, I’ve not personally given her a fair shake.

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