May 2012
3 posts
If you believe the only way the gospel can sound great is by telling people just how screwed or depraved they are first, you’re doing marketing, not evangelism.
“Teresa (of Avila) and John (of the Cross) both say that we easily become so...”
– The Dark Night Of The Soul: A Psychiatrist Explores the Connection Between Darkness and Spiritual Growth
April 2012
7 posts
WatchCheck out this video that some folks I share office space with made for a band called My Goodness. It’s pretty awesome.
mike daisey, literary truth and the bible
Earlier this year, This American Life posted an entirely haunting episode of their radio show called “Mr. Daisey and the Apple Factory.” The episode centered around story-teller Mike Daisey’s experiences of traveling to China to visit Apple factories and learn what the conditions were like in which his favorite products were made.
It was an absolutely captivating and haunting...
““Certainty is an illusion! A delusion!” Lotto says.
Or, as Clint...”
– Great line in an article exploring whether we have a bias against creativity |
WatchMy friend Kyle sent me a link to a worship album that he and his church are releasing. Since I’m really into deep lyrics and congregationally formed worship expressions, I’m quite excited about the album. I’ll have a review coming out soon, but in the mean time, check out this song from the album.
“Not waiting even until the epiclesis, Christ got up, slammed the big book shut,...”
– Christ Got Up | Will Willimon | I’m really fascinated by this article by Willimon. Would love to hear your thoughts.
“From his prison cell, Bonhoeffer penned Letters and Papers from Prison....”
– Religion For Atheists and Religionless Christianity | My friend and mentor, Paul Louis Metzger, wrote this post exploring Bonhoeffer’s view of religionless Christianity and how that applies to Religion for Atheists, a book that was recently published. This is especially helpful if you found...
March 2012
13 posts
“In 1974, when Colbert was 10, his father, a doctor, and his brothers Peter and...”
– How Many Stephen Colberts Are There? | If you know me, you probably know that I’m a huge fan of Stephen Colbert. I just read a very, very interesting article on him and his character that he portrays. In the middle of that was this quote about his faith that I find so intriguing. I love that...
white man's burden lifted →
Click the title above to read a reflection on Uganda and “white man’s burden” by my friend and mentor, Paul Louis Metzger.
clearing temples, taking names
The Gospel reading in the lectionary last Sunday was John’s account of Jesus clearing out the temple. It is fascinating to me that in recent years, this story of Jesus driving out money changers and animal sales has been used to push an agenda of an over-masculinized Christianity in which Jesus is more cage fighter than man of sorrows.
The urge of many to increase the masculine rep of...
i don't want to believe, tell me what to believe
Yesterday, I explored my experience of faith, not as something I’ve chosen due to hope of reward, but more as a story and a God that won’t leave me alone.
One of the byproducts of having this experience of divinity that will not give up on you is that it leads to all kinds of wrestling and asking questions. And this is how faith ought to be - faith has always been the act of wrestling...
I often experience the phenomenon of friends looking at my devotion to Christianity as some sort of oddity, as if I am someone who just really wants to believe in a story where if I’m just good enough I may get to fly off to some sort of paradise when I die. And when I realize that that is what many believe I believe and that that is why I believe what I believe, I think that I too must be...
WatchI so love how into the Timbers this city is.
some thoughts in the wake of #kony2012
It’s been an interesting week in tracking with the whole buzz stirred up by the Kony 2012 campaign. Before anything else, I want to affirm that it is a brilliant and beautiful thing that Americans are being made aware of things happening elsewhere in the world. I think it is quite important that we be aware of what is going on elsewhere in the world.
And with that said, I want to offer a...
“My concern is that most of the actually existing church acts as a type of drug...”
– Peter Rollins | The Contemporary Church is a Crack House
religious devotion to brands
I’m intrigued by how people (myself included) tend to have almost religious devotion to their OS in technology. Someone switches from Mac to PC or PC to Mac and there’s a wave of congratulations and woes. Same thing for smartphones. I wonder what it is that causes such devotion to the products we use that we feel we must defend them against other possible choices.
It’s been...
our happy block!
I’m very excited to see some stuff being published on Our Happy Block (a project Sacred Roots has been volunteering towards see my post about it here). Recently Portland Development Commission featured a post about the work being done, the effort of the community, and the effort of my friend Terah Beth. It’s certainly not the first time this project has been featured and it’s...
WatchCheck out this teaser trailer for A Tale of Delight, a movie project that my friend Heather (who’s a part of Sacred Roots) is a part of. The movie seeks to portray post traumatic stress disorder and its effect on individuals.
I’ve been stoked to hear about it through Heather and am excited for it to continue in production. This is something that you can participate in; those involved...
February 2012
12 posts
WatchVery moving and interesting video of Ed Dobson, talking about his journey in life as he’s dealt with ALS and how it changed everything for him.
Is the number 666 really on our barcodes? →
Here’s a hilariously snarky response to 666 conspiracy theorists that Andrew Jones made the other day.
“We can see that wherever the missionary character of the doctrine of election is...”
– Lesslie Newbigin | The Household of God
“Stop using the word ‘missionary’ and stop sending people out to the...”
– Rob Bell | Hello, Rob Bell | This quote is from a great little interview that talks about connections between what we believe about our work mattering and the future of the world. Check it out.
on insistence of pastoral authority
So it seems everything I hear this month about church leadership has been centered on asserting power and authority and how “questioning authority is sinning.” And all I can come to is that there are a large number of people who are obsessing over power in relation to leadership in the church. I’ve been holding out on writing because I just have not been able to bring up the...
January 2012
8 posts
Sacrilege #SpeakeasySacrilege
I received a copy of Hugh Halter’s Sacrilege through Speakeasy On Tap. My only real interaction with Hugh has been hearing him speak once and talking with others about the Tangible Kingdom.
Sacrilege was a pleasantly surprising book, one which breathed a lot of life into me as I heard a lot of similarities between Hugh’s experience and what we’re trying to do with Sacred Roots....
Well, I’m back from vacation. Guess I didn’t follow through on doing those blogs. But they’re coming, oh yes, they’re coming.
More to come, but know, vacation was great and I’m ready to hit the ground running again. Blogs soon!
Vacation
Being on vacation is nice. It’s been great already to have some time to just breathe and enjoy the sun and read and hang out with friends. I have a sense that this may be just what the doctor ordered for me. Anyway there’s a little update on what’s going on with me. There may be a few blogs on the way too!
Missional in Suburbia
Tomorrow I’m teaching a day of a Missional Church class the my friend Rob does at Whitworth University. In the past I’ve found that a lot of folks in class struggle with seeing what being missional looks like in urban settings but have a much harder time getting it for suburban and rural areas. I asked my friend Matt Bowen to share a bit about his experience of being at a larger...
“Destructive to marriage is the self-fulfillment ethic that assumes marriage and...”
– Stanley Hauerwas | HT: You Never Marry the Right Person (Relevant Magazine) an Excerpt from Tim Keller’s The Meaning of Marriage
a response to tallskinnykiwi's 9 reasons not to...
I won’t make it much of a secret that I love Andrew Jones’(tallskinnykiwi) blog. It’s always interesting to read what he’s experiencing and the thoughts he’s sharing. Today, he posted a list of 9 reasons not to plant a church in 2012. It’s well worth the read, but I wanted to offer a few thoughts in response to further this, so go read it, then come back and...
2 tags
resurrected post: on mentorship
This is a post I wrote a while back for my friend Tyler’s blog. It’s one of my favorite guest posts I’ve written and thought it a great post to share today.
I have a confession: for the longest time, there was nothing I hated more than the thought of being mentored in a church. And I suspect I’m not the only one who’s felt this way.
It’s not that I’m against the idea of...
December 2011
8 posts
The Cost of Community
Earlier this fall, my friend Jamie Arpin-Ricci’s new book The Cost of Community: Jesus, St. Francis and Life in the Kingdom. I was sent a copy to review by Likewise, and it has been my favorite book I’ve reviewed this year.
The Cost of Community in all truth has made me a little jealous. It’s the sort of book that I’d like to write - one that explores scripture but does...
Watch
Skrillex Christmas Lightshow
Hard for me to not be stoked about a combination of Christmas lights and dubstep. Merry Christmas Eve Eve.
4 tags
Jesus vs. Ayn Rand: Christmas Smackdown Edition
Will Willimon weighs in on how celebrating Christmas flies in the face of the values of Ayn Rand:
I’m amazed that these politicians promote Rand’s philosophy without concern for her atheism. But more amazing is the grand celebration we Christians are about to witness. Christmas, the nativity of Jesus Christ, is an eloquent rebuke to Rand and her contemporary devotees, because Christmas is God’s...
giving gifts
It’s been encouraging to me that over the past few years it’s become much more popular to decry consumerism during the Christmas season. Great projects like the Advent Conspiracy have popped up, encouraging people to step off the carousel of feeling like they need to go into debt in spending to illustrate their love to each other during the Christmas season.
I think it’s a...
