Can We Learn Something From Horror Movies?

I read a couple of interesting articles off of the Hollywood Jesus website concerning The Devil's Rejects, a horror movie directed by Rob Zombie (who was the frontman for the band White Zombie, and then went onto a solo career).

Although I never have had any desire to see this movie, I went to Hollywood Jesus to see if someone actually was brave enough to go see this movie and review it - from what I've heard, it's a nasty blood and gore fest. Again, not my type of movie, really.

However, after reading Kevin Miller's take on the movie, it has made me think about horror movies and if we as Christians can learn something from them, and not only learn but grow from them. I'm certainly not advocating going to your local Blockbuster, finding the worst horror movies you can find, and then watch them for spiritual meaning and growth - but it did give me something to think about.

Here is the two-part review:

Part One

Part Two

Philip Yancey Interview

I have a long post coming about the paradox of America being known as a "Christian nation", yet the very things that America is known for actually makes it stand in opposition to Christian teachings. However, until that post comes (it's a very important one, so I want to spend extra time on it), take a look at this interview with one of my favorite authors, Philip Yancey. He talks about many things, but make sure and especially focus on the first part, when he's talking about America.

Follow the link below and towards the bottom of the page is a link to the interview with Yancey (It's under the "Special Features" area). The Media Player stream seemed to work better than the Realplayer stream.

Philip Yancey Interview

A Thing That Makes Me Go "Hmmm"...

After following several interesting links, I came across an article from The New Yorker about a college that was started specifically for Christian homeschooled children who are interested in getting involved in politics - of course, Republican politics.

On one hand, I am amazed at how smart some of these kids are. They often win political debates against other smart kids from Oxford, Harvard, etc. It's good that there are some Christians out there who actually know how to think, who are logical and can debate intelligently.

On the other hand, I continue to struggle with the idea of mixing religion and politics together. This struggle will end up being a very long post some other time, but for now, let me succinctly state that I believe that Christians should be about furthering the kingdom of God, not furthering the kingdom of man. Politics fall under furthering the kingdom of man. When I look in the New Testament and I see the early church - who were living in much more religiously oppressive times than we are - I look at what they did everyday, and nowhere do I find any examples of Christians boycotting a company for believing something different, picketing gay marches, and rubbing shoulders with the powerful political elite. Yet, I see these very things happening with today's church.

Anyway, here's the article.

God And Country

"I Was Just Wondering" Questions

I've been reading a couple of books by Philip Yancey again - first, there was The Bible Jesus Read, and now I'm reading a compilation of some of his articles in Christianity Today Magazine called "I Was Just Wondering". The book itself is probably my least favorite of his - the only reason being that there isn't a united theme or thought that Yancey is working with, as he does with his other books (My favorite book of his is probably "What's So Amazing About Grace?", which is a book about...yep, you guessed it, grace).

But several of the chapters in this book are very enlightening, and I think my favorite thing about this book is the list of questions that Yancey asks at the beginning of each section. So I thought I would highlight my favorite questions that he asks in this book.

- Why is it that the most beautiful animals on earth are hidden away from all humans except those wearing elaborate SCUBA equipment? Who are they beautiful for?

- Why are there dirty jokes? What makes the physiology of excretion and reproduction so funny anyhow?

- As Walker Percy asks, "Why does man feel so sad in the twentieth century? Why does man feel so bad in the very age when, more than in any other age, he has succeeded in satisfying his needs and making over the world for his own use?"

- Why did Solomon, who showed such wisdom in writing proverbs, spend the last years of his life breaking all those proverbs?

- Why are there so many alcoholics these days? Why don't they just come to church instead of sequestering themselves in their own gatherings? Why do sinners feel so attracted to Jesus but so repulsed by the church?

- Why do persons with AIDS so often not come to church? Why did former Surgeon General Koop, an evangelical Christian, get so much hate mail from other evangelical Christians?

- Does God love Americans more than Iraqis and Libyans? Irish Protestants more than Irish Catholics?

- How do you write or talk about theology in a society that still uses the theological words, but has changed their meanings?

- If Christians have their own Christian publishers, Christian bookstores, Christian magazines, Christian ads, and Christian broadcasting networks, how do non-Christians ever come across Christian products?

- What is a Christian product?

- Why does so much great art come from circumstances of oppression? Which makes a better nurturing environment for a Christian author: a free society full of Christians or a hostile society full of non-Christians?

- How can TV evangelists promise prosperity and security to the faithful even though Jesus promised them a cross, sent them out as lambs among wolves, and left most of his disciples to die martyrs' deaths?

A Music Snob Reviews *sniff* Some Mainstream Stuff

Yes, I've become a music snob.

You'll find me more likely listening to musical groups such as The Decemberists, Stars and Sigur Ros or incredible solo artists such as Sufjan Stevens, Hawksley Workman and Regina Spektor.

Yeah, you probably haven't heard of any of them. They are all worth listening to.

I have left most of mainstream radio-friendly music in the distance, except for some of my favorite bands of course, have to keep getting their CD's.

I'm trying to think of a single Christian CD that I picked up this past year that I really, really enjoy. I can only think of one - The Fires of Life by Cool Hand Luke. Now that is an incredible CD. I guess you can count in Room Noises by Eisley as well, since they are a band made up of Christians.

But I still am gravitating more and more towards unknown musicians who are pushing the envelope musically and lyrically.

But this post is to review perhaps, at least in my opinion, the three biggest releases (at least in my favorite genres of music) of the summer. I am counting May as summer, so if you don't like it, too bad.

First off, in May Weezer released their newest CD, titled Make Believe. Now, a lot of people probably didn't buy this CD because they didn't like the first single that came out, called "Beverly Hills". I was having a conversation with Mike about this song at church, and we both agreed that it's because most people just didn't get the tongue-in-cheek-ness of the song. I thought the main riff was rather redundant and clunky, but it was also very catchy. I put Make Believe as the fourth best Weezer CD - I rank them this way:

1. The Blue Album
2. Pinkerton
3. Maladroit
4. Make Believe
5. The Green Album

The Blue Album is, to me, the quintessential Weezer CD because the perfect Weezer formula was there: perfect power pop tunes fused with quirkiness - Rivers Cuomo style. Pinkerton has grown on me and has ascended to the number two spot, but it will never be number one because it was too quirky and not catchy enough (although El Scorcho is possibly my favorite Weezer song of all time). Maladroit was a fine catchy rock CD that almost beats out Pinkerton because it subscribes heavily to the Blue Album formula. The problem with Maladroit is that the songs towards the end seem to be just thrown on there. Which is my beef with Make Believe as well. You would think that when Cuomo locks himself in a closet in a one-bedroom apartment with nothing but a sleeping bag, a guitar and a lantern, and comes out with 200 songs he wrote, that they could find 10 or 11 definite keepers. The Green Album is my least favorite because it succumbs too much to the power pop formula and, besides perhaps Hash Pipe and Island In The Sun, has no quirkiness whatsoever.

Anyway, back to Make Believe. Standout cuts on this CD include: Perfect Situation (my personal favorite on the CD), This Is Such A Pity, We Are All On Drugs, and Hold Me. I would say that if you are a Weezer fan, to definitely get it. But those of you who aren't, I would go with one of the first three CD's on my rank list first.


The second CD I'm reviewing here is actually two CD's - In Your Honor by Foo Fighters. This is my newest CD, so I'm still listening to it for the first times, but I have to say I really like both CDs. The first CD is an all-out rockafire explosion. The second CD is a stripped down acoustic CD that reminds me somewhat of Nirvana's Unplugged CD. I have to say that I like the first CD better, because I feel that Dave Grohl's voice is more condusive to growling, screaming and yelling than it is to softly weaving stories with his voice. But I like both discs in their different ways. Standout cuts on the first CD are: the first three songs (In Your Honor, No Way Back, Best Of You), and the last couple of songs. On the second CD, I like these the best: Friend of a Friend, Cold Day In The Sun, and Razor. I highly recommend this dual CD set, especially if you like fighting foo. It's better than the last CD (One by One, although I liked it better than most FF fans). There aren't any songs that surpass favorites like Aurora, Monkey Wrench, My Hero, Big Me, Times Like These or Learn To Fly, but there are some good ones.


Finally, the last (and best) CD that I'm reviewing this post is by this little known band called Coldplay. X&Y is the name of the CD, and I have to say that at first I was disappointed. You see, I absolutely love their last CD A Rush Of Blood To The Head - with its infusion of sad piano chords (including Dm on Politik, the saddest of chords according to Spinal Tap), guitar parts that stuck in your head, and smart lyrics. It's not that X&Y didn't sound good, it's just that Chris Martin decided to replace most of the piano bits with organ bits, and it took awhile for me to get used to that. But after listening to this CD a few times, I think it's a masterpiece. Even if the CD was mediocre, yet still had the songs Fix You and Til Kingdom Come (which supposedly was written for Johnny Cash to come and guest sing on it, but Cash passed away before being able to do so), I would consider it a good CD. However, all of the other songs are strong as well. Standout cuts are the two mentioned above, Square One, What If? and Talk. Coldplay has produced a rock masterpiece to rival U2's latest CD. I would strongly suggest getting this CD.


Now, as for stuff you've never heard of, trust me and get these CD's - Seven Swans and Illinois by Sufjan Stevens, Vehicles and Animals by Tourist, from a basement on a hill and Either/Or by Elliott Smith, Agaetis Byrjun and ( ) by Sigur Ros, Set Yourself On Fire by Stars, Blinking Lights and Other Revelations by Eels, and Picaresque by The Decemberists. Just don't ask me what these bands sound like, because to be honest, I couldn't tell you. They have their own style. And if you're looking for a good Christian CD, pick up The Fires Of Life by Cool Hand Luke (the CD kind of sounds like a mixture of Radiohead and Coldplay, with a little bit of emo thrown in).

My Biggest Accomplishment Of The Week

No, my biggest accomplishment has nothing to do with my ministry.

It has nothing to do with my spiritual life.

It has everything to do with me being a dad.

You see, I've been listening to a Sesame Street CD everytime we take Noelle somewhere, and there is a song on the CD that is sung by Big Bird. It's called "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ" - and it's not spelling out the alphabet, it actually is a word that Big Bird sings.

It is also very hard to master it. I think my tongue wrapped itself up in knots several times of practice.

But I learned it, and can sing it, and the smile from my daughter's mouth and eyes make every second of learning that stinking song worth it.

The Impact Of One Life

I'm not very good at funerals or at hospitals.

Which isn't a very good thing, considering I'm a minister.

The hospital thing, I guess, stems from when I had two brain surgeries for benign tumors when I was 23. I had to spend a week in the hospital the first time, five days the second time. Hospitals are good places to be sure - I just get this feeling when I get near one that I'm heading back in there to have something done to me.

One hospital experience to share - after my first surgery, I was in the I.C.U. and I had an IV drip of dylantin, a medicine to keep seizures at bay. Dylantin in the pill form was not painful, but the IV drip sure was, it felt like my arm was on fire. Well, I made a mistake. I asked the nurse if there was any way she could figure out how to lessen the pain. She decided to add saline solution to the dylantin IV bag, making it diluted and not as painful. The problem is that it didn't make it less painful, it just made it twice as long. When the IV bag was finally gone, and after my screaming had subsided, I looked down at my arms, and my veins had turned a blackish color. Not a fun experience.

Anyway, I also have a thing about funerals. This probably stems from the past as well, my mother died from lymphoma when I was eighteen. I had the unusual experience of officiating a funeral for my real father's wife, who he married after my parents got a divorce. I also had a very strange encounter playing music at a funeral in Arizona - I won't elaborate too much, but a funeral home that was actually a renovated convenience store, a strange masonic funeral ceremony, an extremely "out of it" widow who encouraged me to preach to her dog as well to help him get over his owner's death were all involved.

Today, I went to a funeral. I was late, so I slipped in the back and sat in the last pew. I came with trepidation, but I wanted to be there as a support and encouragement to the family. I'm glad I went. I heard story after story of how this person who had died had impacted lives, touched hearts, and it encouraged me. I know I'm only in my mid thirties, but I think about death a lot. Maybe it's because I've stared it in the face with my surgeries, or that I've experienced a loss of someone close. I always wonder during these "death thoughts" what my funeral would be like if I died right now. What would people say? Who would come? Who have I had an influence on? It reminds me of a great song called "When All Is Said And Done" by Geoff Moore and the Distance:

When the music fades into the past
When my days of life are through
What will be remembered of where I've come
When all is said and done

Will they say I loved my family
That I was a faithful friend
That I lived to tell of God's own Son
When all is said and done

How I long to see the hour
When I would hear that trumpet sound
Rise to see my Savior's face
See Him smile and say "Well done."

You can forget my name and the songs I've sung
Every rhyme and every tune
But remember the truth of Jesus' love
When all is said and done
When all is said and done

That is what I want to have happen.

Spiritual Disciplines Your Momma Never Taught You, Part One

So I'm reading this book again - it's called Authentic Faith by Gary Thomas. Have you ever had the experience where you read a book that is very powerful, very good for you in your personal growth - yet it just wasn't the right time for you to read that book? Perhaps you were in a spiritual "valley" and nothing, not even a great book, could excite you enough to make some changes in your life. Perhaps you just weren't spiritually "ready" to understand its truths.

Well, Authentic Faith is a book like that for me. I picked this book up a couple of years ago because I had read another book of his - called Sacred Pathways - that really revolutionized how I thought of a quiet time. It was a book that revolutionized Bill Hybels of Willow Creek as well, I remember hearing about the book for the first time while listening to a tape of his from the Leadership Summit that they do every year at their church. I picked it up after hearing the tape, and it was an incredible book. The basic premise of the book is that God doesn't care how you spend time with Him, He just wants you to spend time with Him. The problem is that we are taught in churches and Christian colleges that there is one approach to doing a quiet time with God - 30 minutes of Bible study, 30 minutes of prayer - or something of that nature. That might be a formula that will help some people in their development of their relationship with God, but for others, that formula won't work, and these people won't stick with it.

Gary Thomas in his book introduces several different "pathways" that people can use to experience God. By pathways, the book doesn't mean more than one way to God - let's be clear about that right now. He encourages those who have a servant's heart to use servanthood as the pathway to connect with God. Those who are extremely gregarious and outgoing are encouraged to form a Quiet Time Group with two or three people, which makes total sense. I'm not an extroverted person, but I know people who are, and I know the struggles they have of sitting down by themselves, alone, for an hour each day in order to do a quiet time. For those kind of people, that's torture.

As for me, I found out that I'm more of a contemplative/nature pathway person. Which means that in order to have a growing quiet time with God, I need to be holed up somewhere, and I need to be able to experience the beauty of the outside. Which totally makes sense. Which is one of the reasons I struggled in my quiet time in Arizona - let's face it, Arizona (except for Flagstaff and Prescott) ain't pretty. Ever since I've moved to Ohio, my quiet time has improved considerably, because our house backs up to trees and a park, and I can sit outside each night during the summer without vaporzing from the heat (like Arizona) and spend time with God.

Anyway, this entry isn't about that book, as great as it is. It's about Authentic Faith. And the fact that I must be in a better position to understand that this is a great book. I thought as I read through each chapter, that I would give my two cents on how I think it applies to me and what I'm going to do about it. Gary Thomas, in this book, describes what he calls "authentic disciplines" that help us grow in our faith. These disciplines differ from the traditional spiritual disciplines that you usually think of because they are, for the most part, initiated outside of us. God brings them into our lives when he wills and as he wills. We can't make these disicplines happen, they happen to us.

Here's a great quote from the introduction that helps explain:

"The traditional disciplines - fasting, meditation, study, prayer and the like - are all crucial elements of building our faith, but let's be honest. They can also foster pride, arrogance, self-sufficiency, religiosity, and worse. Their benefit is clearly wort the risk, but that's why the authentic disciplines are such a helpful and vital addition; they turn us away from human effort - from men and women seeking the face of God - and turn us back toward God seeking the face of men and women. There's no pride left when God takes me through a time of suffering. There's no self-righteousness when I am called to wait. There is no religiosity when I am truly mourning. This is a spirituality that I can't control, I can't initiate, I can't bring about. All I can do is try to appreciate it and learn from it. The rest is almost always up to Him."

There are two very quick observations that I made when I turned to the first chapter to find out what the first discipline is that he talks about. The first observation is that my last journal entry was exactly what the first chapter is about. The second observation was humorously noting that the first disciplne that is brought up is one that goes against his definition of "authentic disciplines" - the first one is one that we can do before anything is done to us. He calls the first discipline "selflessness".

Here are a couple of great quotes from this chapter:

- When we're at our selfish worst, world hunger could be solved, world peace could be ushered in, and cancer could be cured - all within the space of twenty-four hours - but if our hair doesn't do exactly what we want it to, it's an awful, horrible day.

- The Christ-like life is not simply about practicing impeccable morality and overcoming temptation and faithfully performing a few spiritual disciplines. All of these were done by the Pharisees far more faithfully than any of us will ever perform them, and yet Christ himself said these religious zealots had missed God's intention. To experience Christ's joy, passion and fulfillment, we need to adopt an entirely new mindset and motivation: We are invited to join our Lord in living for the glory of the Father instead of for our own reputation, and we are called to give ourselves over to the salvation and sanctification of Christ's bride, the church, rather than to be consumed by our own welfare. This holy self-forgetfulness is the most genuine mark of true faith, the evidence of God's merciful grace in our lives.

Gary Thomas gives four examples of people who demonstrated selfless living:

1. Paul the apostle

This section of the chapter was eye-opening to me, because Thomas takes a line that Paul wrote - Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible" - and shows how radical that was, especially given Paul's background. As a Pharisee, he would have prayed everyday: "Thank You, God, that I am not a Gentile, a slave, or a woman." So for Paul to make himself a slave to everyone, to decide to be selfless, went against everything he was brought up knowing and believing. Also, even more extreme - Paul was so selfless, that in Romans 9, he was willing to forsake his own salvation - to spend eternity in hell - if it meant that his fellow Israelites could be saved. Paul took his passion for God several steps further than modern society believes is healthy. He was truly selfless.

2. Augustine

This was a great example as well. Augustine became a Christian and devoted himself to being a monk, but because he was noticed by people in high places at church, he was designated as a bishop, which led him into a very public life - the opposite of what he wanted. Yet he responded in obedience, which led him into a life of great joy and purpose, but also ultimately led him to his death. During a war by the Vandals in A.D. 427, Augustine found himself ministering to hordes of refugees from other cities who had fled due to the war. They brought sickness and disease with them and Augustine had to make a choice: did he flee the city himself (as bishop he could have abandoned his post and sought sanctuary somewhere else), or continue to minister to people? He chose the latter and during the third month of the siege, he developed a high fever from which he never recovered.

3. C.S. Lewis

Lewis, already a hero of mine, became even greater in my eyes as a result of this story. During the Second World War, Lewis took in numerous children who were fleeing London and other cities vulnerable to German bombing. Obviously, being a writer and theologian, having a bunch of kids around would be tough, especially considering having to deal with emotions due to missing their parents and such. Yet Lewis kept doing this selfless act - which ultimately would help his writing, because one of the kids grew interested in an old wardrobe and asked Lewis if, perhaps, there was anything behind it - thus becoming the impetus for The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe and the other books about Narnia. Would C.S. Lewis have written these books if it weren't for his selfless act of taking in these kids? I highly doubt it.

4. Orel Hershiser

I got to see this guy pitch quite a bit, as the height of his career happened while I was going to college in Southern California. Because of his dominance during that period of baseball, younger players looked up to him and wanted to be like him. After the Dodgers spring training camp ended in 1992, a young skinny pitcher heard that he was being demoted to the minors and was obviously devestated. When his head was turned, Orel quietly slipped a ball into his bag. on the ball, Orel had written "From one big leaguer to another. See you back here soon." The young pitcher's name? Pedro Martinez, now one of the best pitchers in baseball (although he shouldn't have left the Red Sox, grrr.)

What great stories of selflessness! It inspires me to stop spending so much time thinking about me, me, me - and to focus my energy on my commitment to Jesus; and in doing so, I will naturally begin taking my eyes off of myself and begin looking at the needs of other people.

So what am I going to do about this? I think the perfect way to start demonstrating selflessness in one's own life is to do secret acts of service. God has been convicting me of this anyway lately; that all of what I do in ministry benefits myself mostly as a worship arts minister - what I do does benefit the church as well, but it still benefits me just as much. But when I do something that has no benefit other than becoming more like Jesus - those are the things that truly matter.

Welcome to K-ADM. All Adam, All The Time

I've been thinking a lot about Blue Like Jazz. Again.

It's probably my favorite book right now (wow, that sounded so Napoleon Dynamitish). I think I've been thinking about it because I loaned my copy to my brother-in-law for he to read on his family vacation at Hilton Head. He's an amazing guy whose life has changed in huge ways since I met him. He was raised Catholic and pretty much turned away from the church for a long time, but the past three years or so we have seen he and his family start attending a church, then going to a Sunday School, then teaching the Sunday School, then co-leading the huge summer VBS they have, then leading men's accountability groups, etc.

Now I want to entice him over to the dark side - the emergent side, that is. So I'm hoping this book does the trick.

Anyway, I've been thinking a lot about Blue Like Jazz, especially when Don Miller talks about how almost all of our time is revolving around ourselves - what we want to do, where we want to go, how people will react to us in this situation or that situation. I honestly believe (as Miller does), that the injustice we see in the world today, as well as the past sins America has endured (slavery, etc.) all is based on the fact that we are preoccupied with ourselves, and that is the root of all evil.

There's a great story about G.K. Chesterton (I'm reading Heretics and Orthodoxy right now; his works remind me a lot of C.S. Lewis books that aren't Narnia related - chew slowly, word by word, sentence by sentence - then rechew four more times, ask yourself if you've properly digested those words - and then chew them a couple more times just to make sure). Some newspaper/magazine/periodical wrote some famous authors to ask them to come up with an answer to this question: What's wrong with the world today? Most answers came back as lengthy responses, full of reasons. Chesterton's came back with two words, and two words only: "I AM."

I am what's wrong with the world. Actually, I and 6 billion other "I's".

I think another reason I'm thinking about this is that I read a very disturbing Time Magazine article. By the way, I subscribed to Time for $1.95 for eight issues, and it opened up their entire archive to me - articles from 1922 to the present. Pretty cool stuff. For example, I looked up the word "momentum" in the archive, since our theme for this Sunday at church is "Maintaining Momentum", and the first time the word is used in Time Magazine is in 1922 in an article about President Woodrow Wilson. Pretty cool...

Anyway, the article I read was about how there are a ton of websites that are actually encouraging young girls to be anorexic or bulimic. I am not going to post any names of those websites, but it is appalling to me that these websites are out there. Most of them are designed and run by college age girls who are anorexic or bulimic. The creator of one of them is a 19 year old college student who has been anorexic since 2002 and "is quite candid about her belief that an eating disorder is less a disease than a lifestyle choice - a decision to pursue perfection." On these sites, girls as young as 10 share tips for losing weight, tricks for hiding the signs of malnutrition, and other incredibly scary advice.

My heart breaks for these women (and girls) who give in to these lies. I wonder if there are any websites run by Christ-followers who are devoted to helping these women change their idea about what it means to be perfect.

But I can't judge them. I think about myself all the time too. I don't express it in how I eat (or don't eat), but it gets expressed in other ways. I'm pretty good about throwing "pity-parties" for myself; thankfully I don't invite anyone but my wife to them (who is gracious enough to hear me whine about my life, and then of course has to remind me that what I am going through at the time isn't really that bad. I think she keeps getting her quotes from Notting Hill, but she does honestly try to listen and help.)a

My "life verse" (I really don't know what that means, but I hear about it all the time) is John 3:30, which says "I must decrease, He must increase." These words were first spoken by John the Baptist in response to questions about he being the Messiah or not. John realized that life wasn't about him. It was about the one whose place he was preparing, Yeshua. (I've been using that way of saying Jesus for awhile now, because I like how it sounds). If I can move from liking that verse a lot to actually living out what that verse is saying, I think my preoccupation with myself would slip away and be replaced with a preoccupation for God and the things of God.

Anthony, in his blog, reminded me of that great quote "Break my heart O God with the things that break Yours." I'm sure, Lord, that my preoccupation with my self is one of those things.

The State Of Being Mortified

mor·ti·fy P Pronunciation Key (môrt-f)
v. mor·ti·fied, mor·ti·fy·ing, mor·ti·fies
v. tr.
1. To cause to experience shame, humiliation, or wounded pride; humiliate.

I have a daughter who is two years old and is a total and complete sweetheart. We hear horror stories all the time from our friends of how badly their kids behave out in public; in fact, Debby and I were talking about it today as we were driving to the mall to allow our daughter Noelle to do what she probably loves best right now - ride the carousel (or as she says, "ride the horsey") We have a friend who lives in Colorado whose daughter is a couple of years older than Noelle, and she told us that there were several times when she had to walk out of a store, minus the cart full of groceries/goods that they had, because her daughter was having a complete temper tantrum.

Well, Noelle is two now, and although we haven't had really any problems during the waking hours with her (she isn't a very good sleeper, let's just keep it at that), we have seen a little bit of stubbornness shine through these days with our two-year-old. A lot of times when she disobeys in small things, I think it's because she's just curious as to what will happen if she does something differently than she has done in the past. Anyway, tonight she was watching her Dora video for the umpteenth time since we've bought it - we still don't have regular T.V., but we will soon - and she had her milk to drink. Debby and I were trying to figure out what was wrong with the garbage disposal, and Debby went over to see what Noelle was doing and found Noelle spilling her milk all over our leather chair. Debby told her no, she looked at Debby and started doing it again. This time, Debby took the milk away and sat Noelle on a different chair and told her that she didn't get any more milk tonight and that she needed to watch her movie. Debby then came back over to where I was (unsuccessfully) trying to fix the disposal. All of a sudden, we heard some whimpering, Debby went back over, and Noelle was sitting there like she was supposed to, but these huge tears were falling down her face. And she had such a sad look on her face, and she said "Sawwy, mommy."

It brought tears to my eyes, because here was my daughter, not sad that she had gotten caught with doing something wrong, but actually mortified that she had done something that we told her not to do. She felt bad that she did what was wrong. And it made me think about my relationship with God and if I'm ever truly "mortified" at my sin like Noelle was with her disobedience. I know I used to be. Nowadays I gloss over when I fail and hardly give it a second thought.

How can I change and truly be mortified?

mor·ti·fy P Pronunciation Key (môrt-f)
v. mor·ti·fied, mor·ti·fy·ing, mor·ti·fies
v. tr.
1. To cause to experience shame, humiliation, or wounded pride; humiliate.
2. To discipline (one's body and physical appetites) by self-denial or self-inflicted privation.

Romans 8:12-14 (New International Version)

12Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation—but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. 13For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, 14because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.


Perhaps by following definition #2 of what it means to be mortified, definition #1 will naturally take place in my life.

Orwell's 1984...George W. Style

Whether you love George W. Bush, or don't, this article is a darn good one from a Christian perspective.

Personally, I agree with the writer of the article. Of course, I am not what you would call a conservative Republican in the first place - I really don't know where I would fall in the political arena, because I honestly don't care enough to find a label for me.

Strange Days

Reason #7,271,395 to praise God this week

Read this and see what I'm talking about.

At Least We Can Unite On One Thing - Maybe?

I read a good article online about how Christians of all different denominations, political leanings, and the like are standing together, unified to make a difference in the war on poverty - especially in Africa.

The Church never will agree on most things, and that's a sad fact - but if we can agree on something that is biblical - Matthew 25 biblical, to be specific (whatever you have done for the least of these...) - then I still have hope for the Church.

Peter Rogness: So many are standing together to end poverty

I Heart Huckabees

Okay, so I have lost my privilege of picking out movies for awhile. Debby banished me from my movie selection throne after we watched this movie last night - I Heart Huckabees. Let me first of all preface this by saying that it was very, very weird. And the DVD box said that a reviewer said it was "laugh-out-loud funny", but I only did that maybe twice. There is a scene that really shouldn't have been in the movie, a weird sex scene, but other than that (and some out-loud swearing by the main character venting his anger towards his nemesis played by Jude Law), it was a decently clean movie.

However, I kind of liked this movie. It presented several different viewpoints that people have when it comes to approaching the meaning of life. The main character, Albert, hires two "existential detectives" (played by LIly Tomlin and Dustin Hoffman) to try to understand the meaning of a series of coincidences involving chance encounters with a tall Sudanese refugee. Tomlin and Hoffman's view to life is that everything is connected - everything is under "one blanket" - you, me, the Eiffel Tower, a hammer, etc.; and only by realizing this can Albert deal with his seemingly senseless life, which consists of him trying to protect open spaces from suburban sprawl by chaining himself to rocks and reading bad poetry.

However, later on in the movie, he meets up with Tommy (played by Marky Mark, I mean Mark Wahlberg), who has latched on to a different person's view on life (he read it in a book written by this person, a French woman). This view on life says that nothing is connected, nothing is meaningful, that we should just realize this and accept this grim fact. Tommy believes this, yet struggles with it because his heart is big (he preaches against petroleum and sweatshops) and he wants there to be a happy reason to his existence.

A further view on life is found when Albert and Tommy decide to take matters into their own hands with Albert's question concerning his coincidences, and find out where the Sudanese refugee lives and eats with his "adopted family", a family of American Christians. This scene interested me the most, because each character in this Christian family spouts off religious jargon and mumbo-jumbo that we probably have believed for a long time. Tommy plays the role of devil's advocate and shows how hypocritical these Christians are - by taking in a Sudanese refugee into their family, they believe that they have done the "good deed" that is requred of them in their lives, and can thus ignore the other things that take place in their lives, in the lives of people around them, and in the world at large.

Eventually, every major character in the movie examines his/her life and questions the things that they have always believed about life. Some make major changes (a supermodel character, played by Naomi Watts, decides that her life revolves around her looks, and changes how she looks to see if there's any othe rmeaning to her life besides that.)

Anyway, this movie caused me to think a lot about what my views on the meaning of life are and where they come from.

This morning, when I was of course still thinking about this movie, I came across an interesting interview with the director of I Heart Huckabees. It helped explain even more why he did this movie.

Interview With David Russell

The Final Cut

I love movies - especially movies that make me think.

I've been watching a lot of strange movies lately - Garden State, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and I'm halfway through I Heart Huckabees - and although they are very weird, I always take away some kind of truth from them, or at least something to think about for a long time.

Right before we moved to Ohio, I rented the movie "Final Cut". I don't think it came out in the theaters, it might have been a straight to video movie. It stars Robin Williams and Jim (yes, I played Jesus in the Mel Gibson movie, but please don't pigeonhole me as Jesus) Caviezel. It was really good. The basic premise was that in the near future, a person could decide to have an implant put in their brain that records everything that happens in their life. Robin Williams plays a "cutter" - a person whose job is to take the footage of a person's life, and then when that person dies, cut up the footage and edit it into a 15 minute video to be played at the funeral. Obviously showing the good side of the person (which is what happens at all funerals anyway, doesn't it?)

Anyway, it opened up a lot of questions in my head. Probably the biggest one was this: If you knew that whatever you said or did to a person was being recorded in that person's brain and would most likely be seen by either one other person (the cutter), or many (the people at the funeral), would you treat that person differently? Would you be more careful with your words? Would you try to present yourself in the best light at all times to this person, knowing that perhaps a brief snippet of your generosity or good-naturedness would be seen by a bunch of people at this person's funeral?

That thought led to another thought. I remember one year when I was a youth minister; we would go every summer to the Christ in Youth Conference in San Diego, CA (later it moved to the L.A. area, which made me very sad because the San Diego college the conference was held at was right on the beach). One year there were two speakers who spoke about the same thing - judgment day - and yet they held two very different views. One of the speakers said that when we die and face the judgment seat or whatever, our entire lives will be on display in front of everyone in heaven, and everyone will see everything we've done. We'll be forgiven of those things, but that will be part of our judgment. The second speaker (a couple of days later) said that when we stand before God at judgment day, He will not remember anything sinful we've done if we've asked for forgiveness, after all, it says in the Bible "as far as the east is from the west, so I have removed your transgressions from Me." So, which one is it? I'm still confused.

Anyway, if it is the first way, and everything will be revealed about what we've done - if we knew that for a fact that this was the case, would we act differently? Is it because we usually believe the second way - at least that's what I thought I believe - that we're not very good about staying away from sin, that we continually return to sinful thoughts and actions? So then, I think to myself - because I don't know what it will be like (unless someone enlightens me in my journal), shouldn't I live like I believe the first way, because wouldn't it help me defeat sin? But then I think, where is grace in all of this? If I act like I believe the first way, wouldn't I be basically be living my life in fear (not the good kind) of God, rather than doing things out of my love for Him?

Do you understand why I have a hard time sleeping at night?

Anyway, I will continue to post entries on movies that I've seen lately that have made me think. I wish I could be one of those people who like to go to mainstream movies where you can sit back and relax and enjoy the movie - but I'm not. I want to be challenged, pushed, stretched.

Even if it makes me rather crazy at times.

The Church On The Other Side, Chapter 1

Once again, I return to McLaren's book.

Chapter 1 reveals the way that the book is going to be written - in a very non-postmodern way. I mean, what postmodern author actually uses the word strategy, let alone give a bunch of strategies in a book? ; )

Of course, that's one of the reasons I liked this book. Rather than a continuing conversation with interesting ideas but no "action", this book gives some "action steps" that the church will need to take if it is going to survive on "the other side".

Strategy One is to "maximize discontinuity". McClaren gives three ways that churches approach change: by renewing one's church, by restoring, or by reinventing]. McLaren believes that the only way the church will survive the incredible changes that are happening with postmodernism is to reinvent the church.

He says, "Small changes were enough in the past, but the degree of change we are experiencing now is such that small measures aren't enough. Instead we need major change, qualitative change, revolution, rebirth, reinvention."

As I read this statement, I thought "Are there any statements that spell death to the local institutional church as it is now faster than the one made above?" Most churches are stuck in the '80's - the 1880's - and the dramatic change that McClaren talks about that is needed in a church is really next to impossible for most of them.

Later on, he writes "our theology, our ways of doing ministry, don't seem to work or fit anymore."

I think this is definitely true. I would say that 95% of what I leared in Bible College is obsolete. Even when I got out of college, I didn't really feel like it prepared me for ministry in the real world. And now - I don't even look at anything that I studied while I was at Pacific Christian College; it's too outdated. When I look back at my years in ministry, I think that the first few years at my home church were "easier", because I think what I learned in college semi-prepared me for ministry at that moment. But halfway through my ministry in Colorado at my home church (I would say around 1998), the rules changed, and I found myself fudging my way through a lot of ministry as I dealt with situations that I had never dealt with before: kids who didn't believe in absolute truth, kids who completely compartmentalized their faith, etc. Now that I've been a worship minister for a few years, I don't see as much in the area of rapid ministry change, but it's still there. The people who are coming to church these days are way too busy in their personal lives, and it's almost like people want a little "Jesus Lite" worship and sermon so that they can live their weeks without too much guilt over not thinking about their faith on any day but Sunday.

I thought McClaren's confessed struggles about starting the church where he is still the senior minister was interesting. He fell into the same trap that many churches fall into: look at other churches to see what works for them, go to their conference or seminar, copy down everything that made them successful, plug the same process and programs into church back home, and expect instant results and an attendance/ministry like the church that was imitated. If it didn't work, find another church and repeat above steps. That's one of the reasons why I'm not a big fan of attending conferences or seminars. Besides the fact I have a short attention span and would rather walk around looking at the exhibits anyway, I just feel like I'm not supposed to copy what was successful at another church. God has called me to a certain church in a certain place because I was the one he wanted to come in and bring my giftedness and my personality - in other words, bring me - to help benefit His church. He hasn't called me to be the next Bill Hybels or Rick Warren, or - please, God, no! - Joel Osteen, he's called me to be me, no matter how much I'm like Moses (please God, send someone else) or Wayne and Garth (I'm not worthy, I'm not worthy).

I really love the church I'm at now, but I've been wondering lately what it would take to make our church a truly missional church - if that's even what God has called us to be. I know that first off, God wants me to be a missional Christian before I'm a part of a missional church. And although I'm working on it, peeling off the layers of other misguided ideas about who a Christian is, I find myself safe in my comfort zone. Would it take a shutting down of the church and then a reopening for the missional mindsight to take place? Or could this be one of the changes that is unlike what McLaren is talking about - a change that can happen slowly over time? One thing I do know is that we are heading towards a financial campaign and a building project - and although those two things are great things - the church tends to become inward focused during those times. If I am ever to decide to be a missional Christian - someone who looks for what God is doing in the world and in my community, rather than looking out for number one, myself - then I need to start now, before all of this stuff starts happening.

The Emergent Movement Responds To Its Critics

I knew there would come a point when the emergent movement would have to respond to people who don't understand what emergent is all about and who criticize the movement, usually using strawman arguments and the like to justify their criticism. I'm sure the criticism escalated after the release of Brian McLaren's latest book "The Last Word..."

Anyway,

Here's the response.

Bluelight Special on Aisle Twelve

I'm not much of a shopper.

I pretty much am the poster-child for what they call the typical male shopper. I'm a hunter. I know what I want before I step into the store. I figure out where the correct department is, go there immediately without collecting 200 dollars, I grab what I'm looking for, head to the nearest cashier, pay and exit.

There is one store where I change from the hunter role into what I like to call the "browser". I could possibly spend up to four hours in this store, and it's really not that big. Today my family and I went there, and if it wasn't for little miss two-year-old "this store is not in the mall, therefore I will not be able to ride the carousel or run around and chase a bouncy ball and eat at Chick-Fil-A, so I will give you fifteen minutes and then I'll throw a hissy fit" Noelle. Of course, since she's two, I feel her pain and happily oblige. But like I said, I could spend hours at this store.

It's called "Cost-Plus World Market". Today as I was perusing the Indian basket section (Indian baskets? Would I ever actually buy one of these?), I was trying to figure out why I love this store so much.

I figured out the reason. In my quest to slow down my life and enjoy it, I have rediscovered what it means to actually experience things. I mean, really experience things. I think it stems from reading a chapter in Leonard Sweet's book "SoulSalsa" (I highly recommend it), where he was obviously speaking to just me when he wrote this certain chapter. He said to me that too many people just fly through life without really living and he challenged me to experience life by using all of my senses. You know, sight, sound, smell, taste, touch, and of course, seeing dead people. I haven't developed the sixth sense yet, but I'm on a quest to experience life by concentrating on my senses. When I eat a meal, I focus on my taste sense and really actually taste my food, rather than wolfing it down. When I go into Yankee Candle Company, I shed my hunter skin and actually try to smell almost all of the candles in the store, even the ones I don't really like too much.

Which brings me to Cost Plus World Market.

This place is amazing to me, because I get to use all of my senses throughout the store. I go over to the papasan chair section and I look at all the different designs of cushions that you can buy. I go to the pictures section and look at all of the paintings and photographs that are on display (especially stopping at my favorite Van Gogh painting - "Starry Night". I really need to buy that some time). They have an assortment of foods and coffees, and so I go over to that section and smell all of the wonderful smells. They always have some kind of world music on the speakers overhead, so I get to experience music from Pakistan or Bolivia or somewhere else that I would never be able to visit but through their music. I take my hand and run it across the handmade tables and chairs and feel the craftsmanship of someone in a far away country. And sometimes they have samples of their chips or some other type of food product that they sell - satisfying my taste sense.

I'm trying to experience life, and if it takes driving to Cost Plus World Market to remind me of this, then I will do so.

Quite The Surprise

I don't surprise easily.

But today I had a very interesting experience. Debby, Noelle and I took our niece Kayley (Debby's sister lives 40 minutes away) to the mall close to our house. Noelle and Kayley rode the carousel (Noelle rode on the horse for the first time), and then we had lunch. After lunch, we went to Graeters (a great ice cream place) for dessert, and we noticed that they had Harry Potter Jelly Beans for sale, and so I bought a box because I wanted to know what they tasted like. On the back they showed the flavors - jelly beans that tasted like bacon, sardines, soap, etc. I honestly thought that it was a joke, that the bacon jelly bean would taste like plum or something like that.

Imagine my surprise.

These jelly beans actually tasted like bacon, sardines and soap. There was also a dirt jelly bean, an earthworm jelly bean. They tasted like dirt and earthworms. There was even a booger jelly bean that tasted like boogers, except I noticed that my boogers taste better (just kidding). The worst jelly beans were the vomit jelly bean (yes, it pretty much tasted like I would expect vomit to taste like) and - the worst of them all - the rotten egg jelly bean. Oh my goodness, it tasted like a nasty egg. By that time we were driving in the car and I almost had to stop the car and get out and puke. I'm amazed at how real these jelly beans and it made me wonder why someone who knows that they taste that way would actually buy a box.

The Greatest Chapter Ever Written

I know I said that I'm going to critique the book "The Church On The Other Side" over the next couple of weeks, but I've also been reading the book "The Bible Jesus Read" by Philip Yancey. I have read this book several times but wanted to read it again. Let me just preface this by saying that Yancey is perhaps my favorite writer. I love all of his books, with What's So Amazing About Grace being my favorite of his. I posted about Yancey a long time ago, so I will refrain from talking about him further, but I do believe that the first chapter in The Bible Jesus Read may be perhaps the greatest chapter ever written in a book not called the Bible.

I have always held Job up as a favorite character in the Bible; although he has suffered much more than I have or ever will, I have felt a certain kinship with Job because I have had a somewhat rocky life.

Yancey's first chapter is about Job. Yancey makes the point that the book of Job is not about suffering, but about faith. After reading it, I agree with him. If the book of Job was about suffering, you would certainly expect a strong answer concerning why we suffer and what is the meaning behind suffering. Job does not answer those questions. In fact, throughout the book of Job, Job asks and asks, and when God answers, it doesn't come in the form of an answer, but in the form of more questions:

"Where were you Job when I laid the foundations of the earth?"

God doesn't give Job an answer, but simply provides Himself as the answer to everything. In God, Job didn't find comfort in knowing the answers, he found comfort in knowing that his God stood with him in these times of despair.

At the end of the chapter, Yancey gives ten conclusions after studying Job:

1. Chapters 1 and 2 of Job make the subtle but important distinction that God did not directly cause Job's problems. He permitted them, but Satan actually caused the suffering.

2. Nowhere does the book of Job suggest that God lacks power or goodness. The book of Job does not call into question God's power - only His fairness.

3. Job decisively refutes one theory, that suffering always comes as a result of sin.

4. Having no clearly formed belief in an afterlife, Job's friends wrongly assumed that God's fairness - his approval or disapproval of people - had to be shown in this life only.

5. God did not condemn Job's doubt and despair, only his ignorance. Job did not take his pain meekly; he cried out in protest to God. His strong remarks scandalized his friends but not God. Need we worry about somehow insulting God with an outburst triggered by stress or pain? Not according to this book.

6. No one has all the facts about suffering. Job concluded he was righteous and God was being unfair. His friends insisted on the opposite: God was righteous and Job was being rightfully punished. Ultimately, all of them learned they had been viewing the situation from a limited perspective, blind to the real struggle being waged in heaven.

7. God is never totally silent. Some sign of him can still be found. "Remember in the darkness what you have learned in the light."

8. Well-intentioned advice may sometimes do more harm than good. As it turned out, the most compassionate thing the friends did for Job took place at the very beginning, when they sat in silence with him for seven days.

9. God re-focused the central issue from the cause of Job's suffering to his response. Mysteriously, God never gave his own explanation of the problem of suffering. The real issue at stake was Job's faith: whether he would continue to trust God even when everything went wrong.

10. Suffering, in God's plan, can be redeemed or serve a higher good. In Job's case, a period of great travail was used by God to win an important, even cosmic, victory.

What a great chapter. Helped my limited understanding of Job quite a bit. Now to go from understanding to living it...

The Church On The Other Side, Introduction

Well,

Here I am. As I said a couple of posts ago, I have recently moved to Ohio from Arizona as the worship arts minister of Southwest Church in Springboro, OH. I have been in the process in the last six to eight weeks of transitioning to the Midwest, and although I keep having people ask me why I would even think about moving from AZ to OH, I have to say that I honestly love it here a lot more than in Arizona. I love the green, I love the trees, and even though the humidity is definitely higher here, it doesn't compare to 110 degrees for two months straight in Arizona. I have truly enjoyed the change.

I have been reading a lot of books lately, several from Relevant Book publishers and have liked all that I have read. But now I'm onto another book that I've been wanting to read for sometime. It's an older book by Brian McLaren called "The Church On The Other Side."

I like it. A lot.

I think the reason why this book of McLaren's has hit me more than even A New Kind Of Christian (although I love that book), is that it is written in a more non-postmodern style. I have to admit - I still like books that tell me three points to do something, five reasons why something doesn't work, etc. I like the linear style of writing and I find myself writing down more in my journals when I have some concrete things to work on in my life after reading a chapter. As Leonard Sweek writes in Postmodern Pilgrims, I am most definitely a postmodern immigrant, not a postmodern native; therefore, even though I like the postmodern concepts, philosophy and such - I do enjoy the modern way of learning and information.

For the next couple of weeks, I am going to use this online journal to write down my thoughts and reflections on each chapter of this McLaren book. I would appreciate any additional comments that you may have if you have or are reading this book.