Mandated Eating and Drinking (missional sacraments #3)

Brian Dodd sent on a Luke 10 Mission Manual by Steve and Marilyn Hill.
He comments:

1. It is full of good stuff

2. It is helpful for sharing Jesus with not-yet Christians;

3. It tilts from a Central Asian perspective and application, and helps us
look sideways at our assumptions and habits that paralyze us from moving out
of the bunker of church-culture;

4. I know Steve and Marilyn to live what they say here. They speak from
character rather than professional training--I find that usually has much
more umph.

5. It is freely received, freely given. I forward the authorization below so
you can feel free to forward this study to anyone you think it might help.

Here below is an excerpt that called to mind my experience with the precious Quechua people in Peru..food you couldn't turn down, story here); and also dovetails with our discussion of "sacrament" of the Love Feast as organic/missional, link here).

I will excerpt more later.. the whole document is on Google Docs here, and appendix here.

Chapter 6

MANDATED EATING AND DRINKING

“And remain in the same house, eating and drinking such things at they give, for the labourer is worthy of his wages. Do not go from house to house. Whatever city you enter and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you.” Luke 10:6- 7

A/ RELATIONAL INTEGRITY AND MULTIPLICATION

Once you find your house of peace- stay there. Or as Peterson says in the Message, “Do not move from house to house looking for the best cook in town.” Once you find a house of peace, honour that house. Demonstrate relational integrity, faithfulness and friendship. If God has led you there, stick out any misunderstandings and difficulties and stay there. Work it out.

The command to remain links with the command of Jesus to make disciples,to train all to obey the things that Jesus commanded. We are not counting decision cards. Your house of peace connection is not a one time event. This is the long term! You stay in the house, stay in relational connection and do not leave them until the job of discipleship is done and then you still continue as friends. You teach them to be the pastor of their family and friends in their own house. A new friend may be comfortable coming to your house but their family and friends will not. You do not want to gather to yourself. You want to go to new houses and teach your man of peace to do the same. You want multiplication. By yourself you can only see growth by addition but when your disciples do the same, you start to see multiplication. By the fourth generation it is out of control but the key is to multiply quality relationships.

Jesus had twelve disciples and stuck with them for three years. He kept sending the crowds away, especially when they wanted to make him king. He poured His life into the twelve. He did not add to the twelve since He did not want to dilute the quality of the relationships which He shared with them. I have heard many testimonies of the intimate, joyful friendship enjoyed by folks as they started a church in someone's home. They grew and soon felt they needed a building and as they grew they lost the quality of those first relationships. Instead of friendships, came programs and as they became successful numerically, they lost their first love. This is the result of growth by addition.

Jesus did not dilute the quality of relationships by allowing others into the group of twelve. You can easily imagine that others wanted to join but He did not let them. If each of the twelve had then had their own groups of disciples those groups could enjoy the same quality of relationships. The growth is through multiplication and through releasing new generations of disciples. This is not some top down multi level marketing program but the natural expression of healthy relational life.

B/ EATNG, DRINKING AND ACCEPTANCE OR BELONGING, BEHAVIOR AND BELIEF

We have found every culture is the same in one way. When you eat with new friends they are always anxious to know if you enjoy the food. Why? If you enjoy the food, you show acceptance and enjoyment of their culture, of their likes and dislikes, of their gifts to you and, ultimately, of them.

This command to eat and drink “such things as they give” is a very strong command in a conservative Jewish culture which forbade the eating of many things as “unclean”. Eat whatever is set before you? This was a cultural divide that Peter needed a very strong dream repeated three times to understand and get over. Because of that dream he was ready to eat unclean food with unclean Gentiles in the house of Cornelius in Acts 10 and then defend that decision before the other apostles in Acts 11.

Notice the order in Luke 10 7- 9... We are to eat, serve and then declare the Kingdom. Eating together shows acceptance but in the culture of that day it was even stronger. To break bread with another meant that you were committing to be their friend for life. Jesus repeats the eating commandment twice. Then we are to serve and then we are to declare “the Kingdom of God has come near to you.”

Let us put that another way, first belonging, friendship and community then secondly behaviour, serving, meeting needs and lastly belief, truth and the communication of the Kingdom- belonging, behaviour and belief. Most of the traditional evangelical community has reversed those three things. We have tended to demand that people first agree with our version of truth, believe the same way that we do and then behave like we do and if they do so, then we will accept them- they can belong. Our acceptance is the reward we give to others for believing like we do and behaving as we would want them to.

Jesus did not do that. He went to Zacchaeus' house (Luke 19) and because of this acceptance and friendship, Zacchaeus received conviction and grace to change his behaviour

The first requirement to be a good apostle is not long academic training but someone who is able to enjoy all kinds of people and who is able to eat and drink with them!

How is your training program? ...

- Steve and Marilyn Hill.

"Glory doesn’t shine….it bleeds”

"Glory doesn’t shine….it bleeds”
-link

Can Political Involvement be Centered Set?

Dave asks:

Can Political Involvement be Centered Set?

we do not appoint elders who do not read the Bible and Rolling Stone

Keltic Ken was not ashamed to pose (in an official church meeting!)with a Bible in one hand and a Rolling Stone subscription card in the other.

I can't think of a better image for a Christian being in tune with church and culture.

Maybe this is why Ken is our elder elder..

Not all agree..

From  a post  of mine on our church blog:

Ken is one of the elder elders of our church. In a post on our forum he had done some great homework about Jimi Hendrix's "Jesus lyrics."

I commented, "Thank God Ken reads Rolling Stone(: "

"I do not thank God that Ken reads Rolling Stone," shot back a well-meaning brother. "I thought he was a church elder!"

Yet I would not/could not have an elder elder in our church who did not at least occasionally read Rolling Stone; so as to be in touch with the Godlongings and psalms out there is the "secular"..uh, "sacred,"...uh, real world.

-from "even christian muzak is sakred...sometimes"
Link

Dylan's Holy Synesthesia, Vertigo Ecstasy, Technology Whispers

The complete French interview with Bono has been translated by St. Beth..
a few more (besides this one) excerpts below. I would highlight these three topics, as they tie to common topics around this heteroblog:

• Dylan's painting with music...that's holy synesthesia
• "Vertigo leading to ecstasy".... hello? sounds familiar, and it also works the other wat around
  
• Intimacy mediated through technology

Bono:..Dylan is like Picasso... He paints things you can't see with your eyes..

Bono: Your songs, too, Carla; they have what I call the gift of intimacy. What interests me is that right now everyone is listening to lots of music everywhere with earphones on. Look in the subway. And you, Carla, are whispering stories in these people's ears. It's extremely intimate. This way of listening to music has changed things; you go right into people's heads and hearts. You don't shout anymore, you murmur. And there's something really radical about that, isn't there? Yeah, intimacy is the new punk rock. (laughs)

Carla: You're probably right, but at the same time, that violent physical emotion that rock gives goes along with youth, and it's very attractive. When I was younger I needed that energy.

Bono: I said that to Dylan. "One day, we're going to try to create with music what you do with words: a vertigo that would lead into a form of musical ecstasy. Our surrealism is going to rest on the sound of the group." I was 24 years old. He was so supportive. He still is.
http://www.atu2.com/news/carla-and-bono-intimacy-is-the-new-punk-rock.html

"Nature does it all the time ... but this is first time in the lab!"

"Nature does it all the time ... but this is the first time this is done in laboratory!!"
-Tweet from CERN after Large Hadron Collider's success
(USA Today article)

McLaren's 10 Questions video : New Kind of Christiianity

For my review of the boook, see:

•  New Kind of Christianity" McLaren

  
  

  "A New Kind of Christianity" review part 2: Greco-Roman fridge repair and loud farts

JuKE haPPens

"Things Bogans Like #69 : Megachurches"

I had no idea what a bogan was when I saw the "Things Bogans Like" website linked on Nathan Hobby's "An Anabaptist in Peth" blog..
No, "Things Bogans Like" it's not a Christian website...which is why it can be so honest and insightful(:....see:

Like the vengeful force that modern Christian advertising portrays him not to be, God has struck back on these desecrations of his temple. He has sought to conquer the glitzy, schmaltzy, commercialised modern world by… bringing it inside a church and selling it to bogans.

-From "Things Bogans Like #69 : Megachurches"

Palm Sunday and Temple Tantrum

Excerpts from a good Andreana Reale article in which she sheds light on Palm Sunday and the Temple Tantrum:

,, Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem actually echoes a custom that would have been familiar to people living in the Greco-Roman world, when the gospels were written.

Simon Maccabeus was a Jewish general who was part of the Maccabean Revolt that occurred two centuries before Christ, which liberated the Jewish people from Greek rule. Maccabeus entered Jerusalem with praise and palm leaves—making a beeline to the Temple to have it ritually cleansed from all the idol worship that was taking place. With the Jewish people now bearing the brunt of yet another foreign ruler (this time the Romans), Jesus’ parade into Jerusalem—complete with praise and palm leaves—was a strong claim that He was the leader who would liberate the people.

Except that in this case, Jesus isn’t riding a military horse, but a humble donkey. How triumphant is Jesus’ “triumphant entry”—on a donkey He doesn’t own, surrounded by peasants from the countryside, approaching a bunch of Jews who want to kill Him?

And so He enters the Temple. In the Greco-Roman world, the classic “triumphant entry” was usually followed by some sort of ritual—making a sacrifice at the Temple, for example, as was the legendary case of Alexander the Great. Jesus’ “ritual” was to attempt to drive out those making a profit in the Temple.

The chaotic commerce taking place—entrepreneurs selling birds and animals as well as wine, oil and salt for use in Temple sacrifices—epitomized much more than general disrespect. It also symbolised a whole system that was founded on oppression and injustice.

In Matthew, Mark and John, for example, Jesus chose specifically to overturn the tables of the pigeon sellers, since these were the staple commodities that marginalised people like women and lepers used to be made ritually clean by the system. Perhaps it was this system that Jesus was referring to when He accused the people of making the Temple “a den of robbers” (Mt 21.13; Mk 11.17; Lk 19.46).

Andreana Reale

upper-middle-class, white departure from orthodoxy

John Piper defines emerging church as an "upper-middle-class, white departure from orthodoxy," "rebellious against megachurch" movement that "prioritizes relationship over truth" and is a "fading reality...whose leadership is in shambles."
He calls Brian McLaren's new book a "catastrophe" (and admits he has not read it)
The Tall Skinny Kiwi weighs in at this link.

taking the crucifix off the wall

"Many people’s concept of God is not
intellectually sound, or it’s too intimidating and complicated. I’m
thinking of these people who take the crucifix off the wall of the
bedroom when they have sex." -Bono

(Thanks to Beth for posting, and translating from the French (link)

UPDATE: She has now translated full article here.

Westboro Baptist subverted

"UIC student Jason Connell used the appearance of the hate group to raise money for queer rights groups such as Human Rights Campaign, International AIDS Foundation and Chicago based Jerusalem Open House. Donations were named in honor of the Westboro Baptist Church and community thank you cards will be sent from the non-profits to WBC leader Fred Phelps. Connell called it a 'Lemons to Lemonade' situation."
-link, more info

U2's bass meets Phillip Glass and is trapped by Celts at 3:33...film at 11

In an installment of

the "Like a Song" series at atu2.com, Sherry Lawrence reflects on a U2 B-side song that you likely have not heard: "Bass Trap."

The lyrics are amazing.

By that, I mean.......

It's an instrumental...but lyrical.

Palpable, maybe.

(Sometimes the only thing better than a one-word U2 song is a no-word U2 song that says a lot..

Sometimes instruments are the best vocals..

Sometimes silent singing is the equivalent of Bongolese)..

To me, the song itself theologically and sonically evokes/ incarnates the meaning of the title.

(Sherry also makes a connection here).

The Edge remembers the recording:

"Brian [Eno] used this really cheap electric harmonics device..to trap a bass figure that Adam had played...It was sort of like what Phillip Glass does with his work. You start with a very simple sequence of notes which keeps repeating, then you work other melodies on top of it. It can be quite effective."

-The Edge, "U2 Into the Heart," p. 168, free read

Sherry's post is a great read (read it here)

Soundtrack it with the great song itself (play both versions below..Sherry comments comments on the delightful connection to "Unknown Caller" and it's 3:33a.m./Jeremiah 33: 3) reference..

I am a sucker for ethereal instrumentals. Some have called this U2's "other" Celtic song..

and Sherry's comments call to mind a Celtic spirituality:

...Life is about ebbs and flows, much like "Bass Trap" as the musical layers build and fade. There's also a playfulness within the song that teases you into thinking the melody is going one way but it doesn't. I enjoy the ability to get caught up in it on so many different levels, and depending on the day, I can take something different out of the song. For a "throwaway b-side," the listener can absorb so much. Come to think of it, bass traps are indeed low frequency sound absorbers.

As with everything else in life, the song ends and the headphones have to come off as there are things to tend to.

. By this point, my son's realized that the couch isn't tall enough to handle his ability to leap tall things, my daughter's dropped her milk bottle, and what's spilled on the floor isn't worth crying over. The phone rings again and suddenly those hands are back on the clock face ticking away as the bang and the clatter of the day gets cranked up to 11. Life begins moving again at breakneck speed and I'm once again that overachieving mom who tries to do it all. Tomorrow, I get my "Bass Trap" break and I get to forget about it all over again -- even if it is only for 3:33.

-link, Sherry Lawrence

© @U2/Lawrence, 2010.

How Celtic is that?

3:33 version:

5:17 minute version:

• Related: U2 recorded another instrumental ("Endless Deep") a few years earlier...production credited to "U2 and St.Francis Xavier." How mystical is that?
• Related: on U2's connection to the queen of Celtic music:

• St Moya, U2 and " the young man with his reputation behind him"

Ray Bradbury @Point Loma: video

Don't miss the Eugene Peterson video from the same series here:

Eugene Peterson on Berry, Bono, and imagination

Other posts on Bradbury, click his name below this post:

Sixpence and God both sneak a smoke

I don't know which image is more subversive, or hard to believe:

• Sweet little Leigh Nash (or her character in the song) of Sixpence,
• 
  
• or God himself,

having a cigarette.

But both songs smoke.

I still can't believe they play the second one on Christian radio!

We might have to do the first one for church..

1)"Paralyzed" by Sixpence

I look out to the fields
Where blood is shed upon the ground
I breathe in, breathe out
Change the channel, mute the sound
I take a match, a cigarette, and a walk to clear my head
Stomach's reeling at the thought of all those (human beings dead)

I breathe in, breathe out
I'm going to an interview
About a song, three minutes long
I just need something to do

Especially when my dearest friend
Was sent to cover Kosovo
His last assignment brought a bullet
And now he's gone, he's gone

Feels like I'm fiddling while Rome is burning down
Should I put my fiddle down, take a rifle from the ground
I need the Ghost to breathe a Northern Gale tonight
'cause I'm paralyzed, I'm paralyzed

I packed his books up, left the office
Went to tell the wife the news
She fell in shock, the baby kicked,
And shed a tear inside the womb
I breathed in, I breathed out,
Soaked the gound up with my eyes
It's hard to say a healing word
When your tongue is paralyzed

Feels like I'm fiddling while Rome is burning down
Should I put my fiddle down, take a rifle from the ground
God give me strength to pray that You will set things right
'cause I'm paralyzed, I'm paralyzed

-

2) "You Found Me" by the Fray:

[Verse 1]
I found God
On the corner of First and Amistad
Where the west
Was all but won
All alone
Smoking his last cigarette
I said, "Where you been?"
He said, "Ask anything".

[Verse 2]
Where were you
When everything was falling apart?
All my days
Were spent by the telephone
That never rang

And all I needed was a call
That never came
To the corner of First and Amistad

[Chorus 1]
Lost and insecure
You found me, you found me
Lyin' on the floor
Surrounded, surrounded
Why'd you have to wait?
Where were you? Where were you?
Just a little late
You found me, you found me

[Verse 3]
In the end
Everyone ends up alone
Losing her
The only one who's ever known
Who I am
Who I'm not, who I wanna be
No way to know
How long she will be next to me

[Chorus 2]
Lost and insecure
You found me, you found me
Lyin' on the floor
Surrounded, surrounded
Why'd you have to wait?
Where were you? Where were you?
Just a little late
You found me, you found me

[Bridge]
Early morning
The city breaks
I've been callin'
For years and years and years and years
And you never left me no messages
Ya never send me no letters
You got some kinda nerve
Taking all I want

[Chorus 3 and outro]
Lost and insecure
You found me, you found me
Lyin' on the floor
Where were you? Where were you?
Lost and insecure
You found me, you found me
Lyin' on the floor
Surrounded, surrounded
Why'd you have to wait?
Where were you? Where were you?
Just a little late
You found me, you found me
Why'd you have to wait?
To find me, to find me

Godhaunted radio

Today's Godhaunted songs/music videos..
1) "Go Do" by Jonsi (Thanks for the tip, Paul Leader)

2)"We are the Kings and Queens" by 30 Seconds to Mars (Thanks to my kids for the tip)
-------------


1)"Go Do" by Jonsi
Go sing, too loud
Make your voice break- Sing it out
Go scream, do shout
Make an earthquake...

You wish fire would die and turn colder
You wish, your young, could
see you grow older
We should always know that we can do anything

Go drum, too proud
Make your hands ache - Play it out
Go march through a crowd
Make your day break...

You wish silence released noise in tremors
You wish, I know it, surrender to summers
We should always know that we can do everything

Go do, you'll know how to
Just let yourself, fall into landslide

Go do, you'll know how to
Just let yourself, give into low tide

Go do!

Tie strings to clouds
Make your own lake - Let it flow
Throw seeds to sprout
Make your own break - Let them grow

Let them grow (Endless summers)
Let them grow (Endless summers)

(Go do endless summers)

You will survive, will never stop wonders
You and sunrise will never fall under

You will survive, will never stop wonders
You and sunrise will never fall under
We should always know that we can do everything

Go do!

--

2)"We are the Kings and Queens" by 30 Seconds to Mars


Into the night
Desperate and broken
The sound of a fight
Father has spoken

We were the Kings and Queens of Promise
We were the victims of ourselves
Maybe the children
of a lesser god
Between Heaven and Hell
Heaven and Hell

Into your lives
Hopeless and taken
We stole our new lives
Through blood and pain
In defense of our dreams
In defense of our dreams

We were the Kings and Queens of Promise
We were the victims of ourselves
Maybe the children of a lesser god
Between Heaven and Hell
Heaven and Hell

The age of man is over
A darkness comes and all
These lessons that we learned here
Have only just begun

We were the Kings and Queens of Promise
We were the victims of ourselves
Maybe the children of a lesser god
Between Heaven and Hell

We are the Kings
We are the Queens
We are the Kings
We are the Queens

snail mail from Eugene Peterson: advice to church planters

Eugene Peterson is amazing...at age 78, he has just released his 467,878th book, and of course it, too, is a classic (excerpts here).

And how cool that he still writes real letters, answering real questions, like in the personal letter to JR Briggs below, responding to JR's letter/question asking "What are the non-negotiables of being a church planter?'

"The one great advantage you have as a new church pastor is that you are forced to start small. Nothing is imposed on you. Determine that you will know every person, their names and whatever of their lives they are willing to let you in on. Be in their homes. Invite them into your home in small groups for an evening or lunch. The killing frost in too much new church development is forming programs that will attract people or serve their perceived ‘needs,’ getting them ‘involved.’ The overriding need they have is worship and that is the one thing that is lowest on their ‘needs’ list. Insist on it: keep it simple – learn to know every last one of them relationally. And call them to worship – and not entertainment worship, but a community at worship. Americans these days are not used to being treated that way, personally and apart from promotional come-ons. Religious entrepreneurism has infected church planting all over the country. When it is successful numerically (and if you are a good salesman and smile a lot it probably will be) you will end up with a non-church.”
-link, Eugene Peterson

A previous letter to JR and the church he pastors, in response to
"What would you want to say to a group of committed followers of Jesus who were starting a new faith community?”:

“…I have a strong conviction that one of the primary responsibilities of the pastors is to use language that is appropriate to living the gospel relationally on the ground, locally, in place with the people you are living and working with… The most conspicuous ways in which the gospel is communicated is by preaching (kerygma) and teaching (didache). They are essential. But pastor and congregation train one another in using a much more relational and personal, informal and unstudied language as we work wit people primarily not to proclaim or teach them about God but ot get it into their everyday, around the house, around the workplace lives. I call this language paracletic (from Paraclete, the Holy Spirit). It gets its content from preaching and teaching, but it gets its tone and syntax from this local and relational setting and encounter. This is the language of conversation – not telling people the truth of God and not explaining the things of God, but letting those languages be translated into the vernacular of our ordinary lives when we are not preaching and not teaching. Which is the way we use language most of the time and most naturally.

And the only way you can do that is with people whose names you know and whose stories you know. This is what is unique about the pastoral vocation. And this is the great opportunity of a newly developing church. You can preach from the pulpit and teach from the lectern but when you walk into the church parking lot or stand in the checkout line at Wal-Mart you are using the language of the Word made Flesh in the places where people spend most of their time, where you spend most of your time.

And now you are forming a congregation where that conversational gospel is possible. I am so glad for you.”
-link, Eugene Peterson

Rob Bell "I invite you to become thoroughly unbalanced like me."

Excerpts from "Crafting an Experience: How to fully engage listeners," by Rob Bell:

What we need are people who will approach the text and say, "God, what do you want to unleash here?" The guiding principle is the text, and you've encountered the living, sacred Word, and you're going to explode if you don't share what's happened in you, as opposed to Well, I guess I have to start it this way. You don't. I have to have an intro. Prove it. Maybe some teaching people have no idea where you're going until the last minute, and maybe that's why it works.

When Jesus tells the parable of the Good Samaritan, everybody thought it was going to be a Pharisee who stops, and a Samaritan stops. Get it? He has them. He's working them over.

Sometimes I intentionally have three teachings going at the same time. I want you to be wondering, That has nothing to do with what you're saying now. I have no idea And then at the end, oooh. If you don't get that oooh, you're in trouble.

...
These are questions I ask myself. How can I make it as hard as possible for somebody to sit with a holy stare? How can I make it so you have to engage? How can I create an experience such that it becomes harder and harder for people to stay spectators? What's happening in this text? What could I have people do? What could I have them say to each other? What can I have them feel, hold, or look at? Is there something I could hand out?

If people can smell it, the kids can chew it, if you can create as many different dimensions as possible—many of us are tactile—if we can feel it, it makes more sense.
..

I did this message on "The Gospel According to Salsa," and talked about how my wife makes the best salsa in the world. And I will arm-wrestle you about that. Everything in my wife's salsa was living at one point. The tomato was living. The parsley was living. The cilantro was living. The onion was living. But in order for it to be made into salsa, it had to be plucked from its life source. The tomato had to be cut from the vine. All of your food was living at one point, but it had to be severed. It had to die in order for it to make it to your plate. If you're at a restaurant and your food is not dead, leave immediately. But there's this principle in which we have to eat to live.

What's interesting about your food is that everything that you eat—and food gives you life—it had to die first. Death is the engine of life. The worm is eaten by the bird, which is eaten by the cat, which is eaten by the wolf, which is eaten by the grandchildren of the worm. Even in the physical realm, death is the engine of life. That's why a Twinkie isn't good for you, because it was never really alive.

...

Another thing we do is assume a teaching is about me talking. There are times when the worst thing I should do is talk. I heard a teaching the other day; a guy told the most unbelievable personal story. It was an overwhelming story. The problem was, previous to that story was a lot of talk, and immediately following the story was a lot of talk. Mark Twain said, "if I would have had more time, I would have said less." That story was brilliant, but it got steamrolled by the stuff before and after. You don't have to talk the whole time to be preaching.

What I'm learning is there are times when the worst thing I can do is talk. For me, in my message "The Goat Has Left the Building," when the high priest was walking toward his seat, it was sacred moment. I can't explain it. The problem with some of our preaching is you can explain it. You got your four points, your three applications, and this is what the text means.

At the end of the parable of the prodigal son, is Jesus saying, "Okay, here's the deal—God is the father figure"?

What if at the end of Gladiator, Ridley Scott, the director, came out and said, "My intention was that you identified with Russell Crowe"? Great stories tell themselves. What we need are the storytellers...

There are no rules. Other than basic things like doctrine: God and Jesus. But in terms of how you're going to do it, maybe there's no intro. Maybe the whole point of the teaching is it comes at you and people are just, like, wow!

I did a teaching one time on silence where I put the whole teaching on slides and stood there for forty-five minutes. At the end I said, "Let's stand for a benediction." Up came "May the Lord bless you and keep you," and I waved and walked off..

..

I work on teachings for as long as four to six months, a year. You'd think I was obnoxious because if we go out to lunch I'll be diagramming on a napkin.

If you're married and I said, "Tell me about your wedding day," you could tell it to me. You wouldn't say, "I forgot my notes." No, you just tell me.

Those of you who have kids, if I asked, "How old are your kids, and what are their names?" You won't say, "I have my notes some place. I don't have my PowerPoint with me." No. Boom, boom, boom, these are the ages. Why? Because it's a part of you.

What if your teaching was such a part of you it was like telling about your wedding day or like telling about your first job? What would it be like if you could tell it like it was a story you told 200 times?

That's my passion. I have found the harder I work and the farther out I've been working on it, the more freedom I have.

The people who are listening to you, they know when it's become a part of you. They can feel when the speaker is just giving some information and observation, and they know when it is coming right through your soul.

We don't need people who sing the notes off a chart. We need soul singers. We need prophets. We need poets. Our generation needs people who have had an experience. They've got their hair set on fire. They're wild-eyed, and they can't wait. I got to say this, or I'm going to explode.

I've been wrestling with this lately. God makes the world in six days; rests on the seventh. Six days, seven. Six, one. Six, one. There is a rhythm to six days on and one day off. I started thinking about drummers and how drumming is all about the spaces. It's all about hitting it and then backing off. Music and beat and meter and drum are a reflection of how God made the world. If you don't take that day and live according to the beat God has put in creation, your song isn't going to be good. When the drummer is off, the whole song falls apart. Rhythm is something that's built in; it's elemental to life.

Everybody I come in contact with, I say, "Check this out. Think about this. Sabbath and drums." I get something like this, and I can't shut up about it. By the time I get to share it with people, I will have told the person at the gas station. I will have told the person at 7/11—everybody I come in contact with. "Check this out. Sabbathdrums."

I invite you to become thoroughly unbalanced like me.
-Rob Bell, full article here

The Last Temptation of Movie Boycotters, Peter Gabriel, Jesus...and us

Michael Pritzl had some excellent comments in his sermon for us a few years ago about
Christians jumping on boycott bandwagon for the "Last temptation of Christ" movie (Sermon:

File Size:	12080 kb
File Type:	mp3

Download File)

I (still!!) haven't seen the movie (yet!!), and I didn't boycott it, but I do know part of the controversy was portraying Jesus as being actually tempted sexually...which if we read Hebrews, we know for a fact he was.

(If you want more on this, click the word "posts" on this podcast player to hear sermons by a holy heretic, mesasges called "Jesus: A Tempted Apostle" and "Jesus Went to the Bathroom...and Cried!")

Whatever you have heard about the heterodox/ 'heretical' nature of the film; the movie have called it the most satanic film ever (Though Mark Driscoll has another candidate for that honor...see this!)
...read this below from the prologue to the book, as it is powerful and (ironically) could elicit a hearty "amen" from the boycotters if preached in their churches:

This book was not written because I wanted to offer a supreme model to the man who struggles; I wanted to show him that he must not fear pain, temptation or death - because all three can be conquered, all three have already been conquered. Christ suffered pain, and since then pain has been sanctified. Temptation fought until the very last moment to lead him astray, and Temptation was defeated. Christ died on the Cross, and at that instant death was vanquished forever.

Every obstacle in his journey became a milestone, an occasion for further triumph. We have a model in front of us now, a model who blazes our trail and gives us strength.

This book is not a biography; it is the confession of every man who struggles. In publishing it I have fulfilled my duty, the duty of a person who struggled much, was much embittered in his life,
and had many hopes. I am certain that
every free man who reads this book, so filled as it
is with love, will more than ever before,
better than ever before, love
Christ.
-Kazantzakis

Then, I heard Peter Gabriel's wonder-ful, joy-filled "It is Accomplished," from the movie soundtrack; at the point of Jesus death. . Evangelicals have often made these dying words of Jesus too trite and too joyful, as if Jesus was just thrillled, as he lay dying, that he was dying for our sins, when in actuality he also likely felt a whole lot more human than that ( see "The Lord Be With You..,,.Even When He's Not!")

But Gabriel brilliantly (as usual) captures the joy extraordinarily well..)

Play it here:

Kazantkis writes of this moment:

Content, he closed his eyes. And then there was a great triumphant cry:

It is accomplished!.

In other words: I have accomplished my duty, I am being crucified. I did not fall into temptation...

Heretics as we are, we played this song (during prayer time!!) at our Sunday gathering. If that's heretical, talk to me about Sigur Ros. (oops, I forgot the singer was gay!) Or how one of the most profound writers on the temptations of Jesus was both Catholic (gasp!) and struggled with homosexual temptation (!!!)..
(That writer's book is used in evangelical schools...schools that likely boycotted the Last Temptation movie).

And....Uh, on that last temptation, the homosexual one, he was in good company, according to a good Book I read:

"Jesus was tempted in every single way humans are..."
(click here for the shocking source...but warning, it's a dangerous book for religious folk!)

PS: I won't even get started (and don't get Corrie Ten Boom on another item the movie got right:

Jesus died naked.
Even Dallas Seminary professors agree with that.
Professors who likely boycotted the movie..

"Left Behind": the video game (seriously)

"this Christmas, don't be left behind":

"people of all faiths are welcome to worship Jesus Christ in their own way"

Colbert:"In America, people of all faiths are welcome to worship Jesus Christ in their own way":

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
On Topic: In the News - God and Religion
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care reform

creation discharges truth

"Creation not only exists, it also discharges truth …
Wisdom requires a surrender, verging on the mystical,
of a person to the glory of existence."
=Gerhard Von Rad

kitsch for kitsch sake

Kitsch is great as a vehicle for spoofing/satirizing/subverting kitsch, a la U2's Pop Mart..

but straight up nonironic (and thus ironic) kitsch on a church website..?

See this.

it happens every time you officiate a wedding

!!

And from the same wedding:



Often when I officiate weddings, and the groom is nervous, I try to lighten the mood. I pull out my little black book in front of all the groomsmen and fake a shocking, "Oh my goodness, I accidentally brought my funeral book by mistake!! But I'll just read from it anyway..i mean it's the same idea. Is that OK?" Then there is a laugh of relief when they realize I'm kidding!

But at Margaret and Paul's wedding.....

for the first time, I couldn't find my wedding book right away, so i did actually bring the funeral book instead. It didn't really matter, as after doing years of weddings I don't need the book, I just use it to stick little sticky notes in for the sermon, prompts, names etc.

So I just crossed out the big title "FUNERAL" on the spine with a black marker, so folks wouldn't see it while I was up front (:

Then for a laugh and a few pics, after the service, I rubbed off the ink so you could read it.

"What is Missional Church?" 2 minute video

By Jeff McGuire and friends:

submit your top five books that should be included in seminary curriculums, but likely aren't.

Due to an offhanded comment, i "accidentally" started to compose a list of " the top five books that should be included in seminary curriculums, but likely aren't."

I am thinking of books that likely aren't officially "Christian," or officially about "Christian" topics, but offer valuable lessons re: life and ministry in the postmodern world. Or maybe books that may be theological, but push envelopes, norms and forms..books we may not agree with doctrinally, but God can use to form us as far as cultural sensitivity.

Love to see your list!! Post them below.

Oh, here are my first (off the wall, and odd the cuff) three, including one (second link) that I actually was allowed to use in seminary (Gotta love Asbury! I even joked about sneaking it into the seminary in a brown paper bag!).
In no particular order:

• http://davewainscott.blogspot.com/2010/03/new-heresies-that-preacher-types-can.html
• http://davewainscott.blogspot.com/2007/11/well-ended-stories-that-dont-end-well.html
• http://davewainscott.blogspot.com/2010/03/celtic-treasure-by-liz-babbsa-coffee.html

Oh, it should go without saying that, if I go with a list of books that are in some way officially Christian/theological, the list gets easy and long.. Of course, "Get Up From Your Knees: Preaching the U2 Catalog" should make the list...Wolfgang Simson, Alan Hirsch, Annie Dillard..et al... Love to see your lists of those...but:

I would really love to hear your more provocative..unobvious...good "pagan" books, yeah! (:

PS:
i already know one of Ryan's...and found it on discount:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Road

And one of Mike Rinaldi's:
http://davewainscott.blogspot.com/2010/02/chiasm-led-me-to-christ.html

Even though Brian Dodd's response was profound, and ideally should shut down all submissions:

Dave, I find the whole exercise self-defeating. It is a wrong question, that leads to wrong answers, that lead to misguided behavior. We need to be a people of ONE book. We are anemic as a church, not because our religious professionals need to read different books, but because we read--and do--everything but the Bible. When I was a leadership ... See Moreprofessor at your alma mater, I continually got this feedback for my "Servant is Leader" class: "I read more Bible in your leadership class than I have in any of my Bible classes." Sad, but true. The Bible sheds a lot of light on the commentaries and commentators. The command is not to understand, but to stand-under, and to "teach them to OBEY ALL that I have commanded you." Oh, give me the book of God! I want to know the way to heaven! Brian (for more on this, see "Why I am not writing another book" @ http://www.brianjdodd.blogspot.com/).
- Brian J Dodd

...I would still love to see your

>>See this, for some amazing suggestions so far...
and add yours.

I just have to promise we won't start a new seminary.
Or read any of your books before I read the Bible today..