Okay, so it's been a month since my first post on this book called The Present Future - a book that pretty much smacks you in the face with reality. I'm sorry it's been so long, it's been a long month of campaign stuff. Now that the first part of the stewardship campaign is over, I can now start posting on this book again.
Anyway, we left off chapter one with the first wrong question that churches are asking, which is this: "How do we do church better?" The truth, the reality, is that no matter how much better you do church, no matter what program you buy into - whether it be the purpose-driven church, or the servant-driven church or whatever - unchurched people still won't care. They really won't. They don't wake up on Sundays thinking, "If only there was a church that was purpose-driven in my community - then I would go to church!" Unchurched people don't think like that.
Let's switch gears from the wrong question to the tough question of this chapter: How do we deconvert from Churchianity to Christianity? We ended the first part of this chapter saying that the church needs a mission fix. What is our mission as the Church?
McNeal says this: "North American Christians think in terms of its institutional expression, the church, as opposed to think about Christianity in terms of a movement." In other words, the church tends to exist for itself. What will it take to have our eyes opened and begin to realize that we've been barking up the wrong tree, so to speak? "It will require a disentangling, an intentional self-differentiation from church in order to gain perspective, a willingness to abandon church club member mentality for the sake of following Jesus." In other words, deconverting from a mindset of "the church exists for itself" to "what is the mission God has called the church to fulfill" is a hard thing to do.
When I was reading this part of the chapter, my mind wandered to a scene from one of my favorite movies. You may have heard of it, it was called The Matrix. Anyway, there's a scene where Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) is explaining to Neo (Keanu Reeves) that the world that he thinks is real is not real. In fact, Neo thinks it's 1999 when in reality it's somewhere around 2099. Neo thinks he is a free person who has lived a regular life; Morpheus tells him that he actually has lived in a pod all his life, and that the supposed real life that he thought he was living was actually fake neurological impulses that machines have been "feeding" him while they used the energy from his body for their own purposes. (There are several very good "backstories" to the beginning of the Matrix, the rise of the machines - The Animatrix DVD is a good starter. Yes, I'm still a little obsessed.) Neo has a very hard time accepting these facts. In fact, Reggie McNeal reminds me a little of Morpheus - rather blunt, no beating around the bush. After Neo collapses from the weight of the truth, Morpheus appears in his room and apologizes for being so blunt. He tells Neo that they have set a certain age limit of people whose minds they free, because at a certain age, one can't change their thoughts about what is true and what isn't.
I wonder what that age is with the blunt realities that McNeal is driving home in this book. I wouldn't say it is an age as in a number of years; I would say it is more likely how long one is immersed in Christian culture that determines whether someone can really change their mind about what the church should be all about.
The next point that hit me like a brick was this: "In America, the initiative to become a Christian has become largely an invitation to convert to the church." This is true. We baptize people so that they can become a Christian and so they can join our church. "Anyone serious about being a Christian will order their lives around the church, shift their life and work rhythms around the church schedule, channel their charitable giving through the church, and serve in some church ministry." Here is a painful truth. This is why most people, once they become a Christian, lose most contact with their unchurched friends. They are expected, after becoming a Christian, to jump with both feet forward into the church culture and quickly become homogenized into the church. "In other words, serve the church and become a fervent marketer to bring others into the church, to do the same."
Okay, enough of the "sickness" diagnoses. What is the remedy?
"We need to recapture the mission of the church."
What is that mission?
"The church has forgotten why it exists. The church was created to be the people of God to join him in his redemptive mission in the world. It was never intended to exist for itself."
"Jesus didn't teach his disciples to pray "thy church come". The kingdom is the destination."
There were two things I was very good in college. One thing was the ability to skip chapel (I didn't say they were good things) and almost get kicked out of college two weeks before I graduated (which was not related to skipping chapel). The other thing was write papers that professors really liked. One thing that I wrote in a class reminds me of what McNeal is talking about. In this paper, I compared the nation of Israel to the church of today (well, the church of the early 90's, I should say). I made the point that the fall of the Jewish nation wasn't primarily due to evil leaders, the worship of idols, and the imitation of the detestable practices of its neighbors. True, those things contributed, but they weren't the only reasons. The biggest reason, in my opinion, as to why the Jewish nation went into steep decline, is because the people of Israel were so focused on their pride in being God's chosen nation that they forgot the responsibility that God gave them as a nation: "to be a light unto the Gentiles so that they would bring salvation to the ends of the earth." (Acts 13:some verse) The nation of Israel began to exist for the preservation and exaltation of and complete focus on itself, and when that happened, all you know what broke loose. Can you see the parallels between Israel and the church?
We need to rediscover our mission as the body of Christ. This "rediscovery" will be painful for most of us, because our minds aren't ready to let go of what we think reality is.
Neo asks Morpheus something right before Morpheus apologizes for being brutally honest. He says, "I can't go back, can I." Morpheus says, "No. But If you could, would you really want to?" Most Christians, when confronted with The Present Future, would find any way possible to be "plugged back into the Matrix", because it's a lot easier than trying to change oneself and the church. I choose to face the honest truth about the church and to face the real world.
Let me end with this last quote by McNeal: "The church has lost its influence at this critical juncture. It has lost is influence because it has lost its identity. It has lost its identity because it has lost its mission."
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
The Mark Of The Beast????
Okay, so I checked my profile a couple of minutes ago, and found the disturbing news that I may have the mark of the beast.
What, you say?
Here's the proof:
On Blogger Since January 2005
Profile Views 666
If someone could take a look at my profile so that I can stop calling myself "the spawn of Satan", "Abaddon" and "one of those ten horns", I would be very grateful.
What, you say?
Here's the proof:
On Blogger Since January 2005
Profile Views 666
If someone could take a look at my profile so that I can stop calling myself "the spawn of Satan", "Abaddon" and "one of those ten horns", I would be very grateful.
The Disciple's Journal Character Trait #5: Forgiveness
I have talked rather extensively recently about forgiveness, so I'm not going to go into any stories, but I thought I'd continue the Disciple's Journal Character Series I started (although I am behind, but oh well) by giving you the memory verse I've been working on concerning forgiveness, as well as some of those great questions that are in the journal.
The memory verse: Ephesians 4:32 - Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
Self-evaluation questions:
- Do I release those who offend me by telling God I forgive them?
- Would I rather forgive than be forgiven?
- When I ask God to forgive me, do I believe He does?
- Do I carry the burden of an unforgiven sin?
- Has my attempt to forgive someone led to further conflict with that person?
- Have I ever observed the destructive results of a person's unwillingness to forgive?
- Can I name three people to whom I have said in the last six months, "Would you forgive me?"
- Can I name three people whom I have forgiven during the last six months?
The memory verse: Ephesians 4:32 - Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
Self-evaluation questions:
- Do I release those who offend me by telling God I forgive them?
- Would I rather forgive than be forgiven?
- When I ask God to forgive me, do I believe He does?
- Do I carry the burden of an unforgiven sin?
- Has my attempt to forgive someone led to further conflict with that person?
- Have I ever observed the destructive results of a person's unwillingness to forgive?
- Can I name three people to whom I have said in the last six months, "Would you forgive me?"
- Can I name three people whom I have forgiven during the last six months?
Friday, February 24, 2006
Evangelism Gone Wrong
The great blogger at Slacktivist makes a very good point about evangelism (You have to go down a few posts to find it). He has been going through the first Left Behind book and posting on everything he sees wrong with it. I think he's somewhere around 100 posts, and he might be halfway through the book. Anyway, this quote about evangelism, and how it has changed from the idea of hospitality to the idea of marketing, is genius. I bolded the part that hit me hardest, especially because I have heard the first part before (about evangelism being one beggar telling another beggar how to find bread). Enjoy:
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Evangelism" today is not seen as the practice of hospitality, but as a kind of marketing scheme. It is not an invitation, but a sales pitch. Not a matter of "taste and see," but of "buy now." Or, to use one of my favorite descriptions of the work of evangelism, it is not "one beggar telling another beggar where he found bread," but rather one fat man trying to convince another fat man that he's a beggar in order to close the sale on another loaf.
Contemporary American-style evangelism is made even stranger by the fact that it seems devoid of content. It's become a turtles-all-the-way-down exercise with no apparent real bottom. Evangelism means, literally, the telling of good news. Surely there must be more to this good news than simply that the hearers of it become obliged to turn around and tell it to others. And those others, in turn, are obliged to tell still others the good news of their obligation to spread this news.
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Evangelism" today is not seen as the practice of hospitality, but as a kind of marketing scheme. It is not an invitation, but a sales pitch. Not a matter of "taste and see," but of "buy now." Or, to use one of my favorite descriptions of the work of evangelism, it is not "one beggar telling another beggar where he found bread," but rather one fat man trying to convince another fat man that he's a beggar in order to close the sale on another loaf.
Contemporary American-style evangelism is made even stranger by the fact that it seems devoid of content. It's become a turtles-all-the-way-down exercise with no apparent real bottom. Evangelism means, literally, the telling of good news. Surely there must be more to this good news than simply that the hearers of it become obliged to turn around and tell it to others. And those others, in turn, are obliged to tell still others the good news of their obligation to spread this news.
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Thursday, February 23, 2006
I Heart Absurdity
I'm one of those people who love humor that's absurd. Things that really wouldn't happen. In fact, absurd humor commercials are really the only ones I enjoy.
Presently, my favorite commercial is very absurd. But I love it! Here you go - a video to enjoy.
Presently, my favorite commercial is very absurd. But I love it! Here you go - a video to enjoy.
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
Why We Don't Practice What We Preach
Ronald J. Sider is kind of a modern-day hero for me. He wrote the book "Rich Christians In An Age Of Hunger" - a book that spoke to me in so many different ways and has allowed me to find, what I believe, is my life mission, the vision for what I believe God has called me to do and be. That's a story for another time, but I do have to say I am eternally grateful for Ron Sider writing that book.
Anyway, I found a great article by Sider on beliefnet. Two quotes from the article probably disturbed me the most:
- In the last ten years, several million of the most devout American evangelical youth have signed the “True Love Waits” pledge to abstain from sexual activity until marriage—but a massive recent study found that 88% had broken their promise.
- And when it comes to racism, Lord have mercy. In a Gallup poll survey on how people respond to having a black neighbor, evangelicals were more racist than everybody else.
For me, this article is a continuance of the article I read in Harper's Magazine that I talked about several months ago. We as evangelicals certainly do not practice what we preach. Brennan Manning said something that speaks to this, in fact, it's on DC Talk's CD "Jesus Freak":
The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is…..Christians, who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, and walk out the door, and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.
Enough said.
You can read the article here.
Anyway, I found a great article by Sider on beliefnet. Two quotes from the article probably disturbed me the most:
- In the last ten years, several million of the most devout American evangelical youth have signed the “True Love Waits” pledge to abstain from sexual activity until marriage—but a massive recent study found that 88% had broken their promise.
- And when it comes to racism, Lord have mercy. In a Gallup poll survey on how people respond to having a black neighbor, evangelicals were more racist than everybody else.
For me, this article is a continuance of the article I read in Harper's Magazine that I talked about several months ago. We as evangelicals certainly do not practice what we preach. Brennan Manning said something that speaks to this, in fact, it's on DC Talk's CD "Jesus Freak":
The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is…..Christians, who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, and walk out the door, and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.
Enough said.
You can read the article here.
Ten Thousand Gallons Of Oil vs. Ten Thousand Words
I thought that this was a great article written by the Real Live Preacher (Gordon Atkinson). I've always struggled with church sign marketing - heck, church marketing as a whole. I've always liked the churches that say on their signs "All are welcome". Well, for one - I would certainly hope so. Secondly - if you have to announce that all are welcome, is it really true? Is it something like a mantra that your church has to chant over and over again to make sure that everyone knows that they need to be welcoming, or is a welcoming attitude ingrained in the life of the church, as it should be?
Anyway, my favorite quote from this article (and where I get the title of this post) is this:
Old Testament prophets lost their lives railing against such religion. Now their messages—as painful and relevant as ever—lie safely tucked behind the Song of Songs in a Bible section of odd lists and unread names: Micah, Amos, Jeremiah, and Isaiah, to name a few. Yet the Lord hates our unlived orthodoxy just as He hated their rote sacrifices. Ten thousand gallons of oil did not appease the Lord then. What can ten thousand words do for us now?
Anyway, my favorite quote from this article (and where I get the title of this post) is this:
Old Testament prophets lost their lives railing against such religion. Now their messages—as painful and relevant as ever—lie safely tucked behind the Song of Songs in a Bible section of odd lists and unread names: Micah, Amos, Jeremiah, and Isaiah, to name a few. Yet the Lord hates our unlived orthodoxy just as He hated their rote sacrifices. Ten thousand gallons of oil did not appease the Lord then. What can ten thousand words do for us now?
Monday, February 20, 2006
What Would The Homeless Do?
I can't believe how long ago I graduated from college. It seems like another lifetime, really. There were some great moments while I attended Pacific Christian College (now called Hope International University), and some not-so-great moments as well (I'm thinking mostly of the last semester of my college experience). There were also many poignant, powerful moments that happened - usually moments that came as a surprise to me.
One experience that was very moving was when as a student body, we were locked out of the dorms for a day. The idea was to try and see what it would be like to be homeless - sleeping outside, not eating, etc. Of course, because we lived in the Christian college bubble, most of us, myself included, pretty much stuck around campus, and although I did sleep outside, it was on campus, in a safe place, with other people. People I trust. There were others who actually went over to Cal State Fullerton (which was across the street), and pretended to be homeless over there. I'm sure their experience was more fulfilling than mine, but I'll remember it always just the same.
This memory came up in my head because of a book that has come out recently. It's about a college-age Christian who was living a very sheltered, nice, affluent life in Santa Barbara, CA. One Sunday, he heard a sermon that changed his life, truly. He and his buddy decided to find out what it really is like to be homeless, and for five months they became homeless in different cities around the nation. Two of the cities I have lived in - Denver, where I grew up; and Phoenix - where I lived for three years. They took no money with them, and it sounds like an amazing story. When I get this book, I'll let you know how it is. Of course, I'm still working on processing The Ancient Future - yes, I remember that I need to get back to even the last half of chapter one! It's coming soon, I promise!
One experience that was very moving was when as a student body, we were locked out of the dorms for a day. The idea was to try and see what it would be like to be homeless - sleeping outside, not eating, etc. Of course, because we lived in the Christian college bubble, most of us, myself included, pretty much stuck around campus, and although I did sleep outside, it was on campus, in a safe place, with other people. People I trust. There were others who actually went over to Cal State Fullerton (which was across the street), and pretended to be homeless over there. I'm sure their experience was more fulfilling than mine, but I'll remember it always just the same.
This memory came up in my head because of a book that has come out recently. It's about a college-age Christian who was living a very sheltered, nice, affluent life in Santa Barbara, CA. One Sunday, he heard a sermon that changed his life, truly. He and his buddy decided to find out what it really is like to be homeless, and for five months they became homeless in different cities around the nation. Two of the cities I have lived in - Denver, where I grew up; and Phoenix - where I lived for three years. They took no money with them, and it sounds like an amazing story. When I get this book, I'll let you know how it is. Of course, I'm still working on processing The Ancient Future - yes, I remember that I need to get back to even the last half of chapter one! It's coming soon, I promise!
Sign That The Apocalypse Is Upon Us #1
Just when I thought things couldn't get worse, I was watching Dora The Explorer with my daughter this morning and saw an ad for some kids cd called KidzBop 9. I guess it's a cd with kids singing "hit tunes". And then they did it. They sung part of the Weezer song "Beverly Hills".
Beverly Hills, that's where I want to be
Living in Beverly Hills
I wanted to shove sharp instruments into my ears. That's what I want to hear - 8 year old kids, not only singing a song by one of my favorite bands, but also singing a song about Beverly Hills. Do they understand that the song pokes fun at Beverly Hills? Do they realize that Rivers Cuomo figured this out and now lives in a one-bedroom cruddy apartment because he realized that money doesn't mean anything? And...ahem...do they realize that the video for Beverly Hills was filmed at the Playboy Mansion?
My friends - soon the sun will turn black and the moon blood red. Mark my words - this is the first sign of the Apocalypse.
Beverly Hills, that's where I want to be
Living in Beverly Hills
I wanted to shove sharp instruments into my ears. That's what I want to hear - 8 year old kids, not only singing a song by one of my favorite bands, but also singing a song about Beverly Hills. Do they understand that the song pokes fun at Beverly Hills? Do they realize that Rivers Cuomo figured this out and now lives in a one-bedroom cruddy apartment because he realized that money doesn't mean anything? And...ahem...do they realize that the video for Beverly Hills was filmed at the Playboy Mansion?
My friends - soon the sun will turn black and the moon blood red. Mark my words - this is the first sign of the Apocalypse.
Friday, February 17, 2006
There's Just Something About Good Food and Good Music
Tonight we went out to Barnes and Noble - one of our usual jaunts with Noelle - free and entertaining! We also went to the "cookie store" as Noelle calls it - Dorothy Lane Market. We went upstairs - Noelle with her frosted cookie, me with her free one that they hand out, and sat down with Debby. There were a few "youths" upstairs, one of them playing the piano. I had to go to the bathroom, and as I was washing my hands, I heard the piano chord progression of "The Scientist" by Coldplay playing. I hurried outside and listened to The Scientist played perfectly, as well as the song Clocks.
It was nice. I would rank it right up there when I was mad in Arizona because things had come to a screeching halt at the church, and I went to Chipotle with Noelle (and then of course to Barnes and Noble), and they played "nosjavelin" by Sigur Ros over the speakers as I munched on my chicken burrito.
Like I said above, there's just something about good food and good music.
It was nice. I would rank it right up there when I was mad in Arizona because things had come to a screeching halt at the church, and I went to Chipotle with Noelle (and then of course to Barnes and Noble), and they played "nosjavelin" by Sigur Ros over the speakers as I munched on my chicken burrito.
Like I said above, there's just something about good food and good music.
The Stockdale Paradox
Every year, the church leadership at the church I was at in Arizona went to a conference called the Willow Creek Leadership Summit. A few years ago, they changed the conference to a satellite conference - which meant that you didn't have to actually go to Chicago in order to attend the conference, you met at a satellite church near your own church, and watched everything on the big screens and such. The church that planted us hosted the Summit every year, which made it pretty easy for us to go.
I have to be honest - most of the time, the Summit didn't do much for me. I'm just not that kind of learner - to sit and listen to different speakers talk about leadership, take notes, and hopefully absorb it into my life. However, I found some of the speakers rather interesting - Dan Allender, Daniel Goleman, Tim Sanders (founder of Yahoo), and Pat Summit (coach of the Tennessee Volunteers women's basketball team).
This year, I'm excited, however, and I'm trying to find a way to get to attend the Summit: Bono from U2 is going to be one of the featured guests. I think it will be fascinating to hear what he has to say on leadership and the church. I wonder if there will be a profanity filter, maybe a five second delay or something ;^) .
If Willow Creek hasn't brought in Jim Collins to speak (I can't remember if they have or not), they certainly should. He's the author of the best-selling business books Built To Last and Good To Great. I have not read the first one, but I'm in the middle of reading the second one. Now, I'm not the kind of person who goes out, buys a bunch of books on secular leadership, and then tries to integrate human business management principles into church. Personally, most of it doesn't work. The main reason is that businesses are organizations, churches are organisms. Businesses are also mostly made up of salaried and hourly workers; the church is mostly made up of volunteers. There are some principles that just don't make the intersection of secular and sacred.
However, reading this book, there is a principle I would like to share with you. It's something Jim Collins calls "The Stockdale Paradox". The name comes from the life of Admiral Jim Stockdale, who was the highest ranking officer in the "Hanoi Hilton" prisoner-of-war camp during the Vietnam War. Stockdale was tortured several times during his eight year stint in the camp and lived without "any prisoner's rights, no set release date, and no certainty as to whether he would even survive to see his family again." However, he did not stop being a leader. He attempted to keep morale strong in the camp, exchanged secret intelligence information with his wife, and developed a secret communication system within the camp.
Collins talks in the book how he read Stockdale's account of his experiences, and became very depressed reading of the conditions. He wondered how Stockdale could rise above everything against him in Vietnam - if Collins himself became depressed reading the story, even though he knew the happy ending (Stockdale was released, became a hero, etc.), how on earth did Stockdale deal with it when he was actually there and did not know the end of the story?
Stockdale gave a profound answer when Collins asked him later on. "I never lost faith in the end of the story. I never doubted not only that I would get out, but also that I would prevail in the end and turn the experience into the defining event of my life, which in retrospect, I would not trade."
What is the Stockdale Paradox? It's simply this: when you accept the brutal facts of reality, but you maintain an unwavering faith in the endgame and commit to prevail despite the brutal facts. You can apply this in any situation: being the underdog team in a sports competition; being a business facing some severe problems, being a church dealing with hard situations, being a Christian who is going through unbelievable trials. You have to have both sides of the paradox to truly come out of a situation better than before. If you accept the facts, yet don't have faith in what will happen in the end, you have existentialism, essentially. If you have faith in what will happen in the end, but don't accept the facts of the here and now, you have a false optimistic "pie-in-the-sky" idealism. Stockdale says that the latter type of people were the people who died the quickest in the POW camp.
Think of the Biblical characters who displayed this kind of Stockdale Paradox: Abraham when he is called to go to a foreign land - he had the promise of God but still had to face the brutal trip there (wars, kings, fighting between Sarah and her servant, etc.) Joshua took up the mantle of leadership from Moses and was told that the land of Canaan was his for the taking - but he had to take it first, facing battles, defections, sin (Achan), and more. And of course, the greatest example was Jesus.
Admiral Stockdale died in July of this past year - it's too bad, on one hand, because he would have made a great Leadership Summit guest. On the other hand, he lived an amazing life: all because he decided to face the brutal, hard facts about his situations in life, yet knew that God would see him through to the other side.
I have to be honest - most of the time, the Summit didn't do much for me. I'm just not that kind of learner - to sit and listen to different speakers talk about leadership, take notes, and hopefully absorb it into my life. However, I found some of the speakers rather interesting - Dan Allender, Daniel Goleman, Tim Sanders (founder of Yahoo), and Pat Summit (coach of the Tennessee Volunteers women's basketball team).
This year, I'm excited, however, and I'm trying to find a way to get to attend the Summit: Bono from U2 is going to be one of the featured guests. I think it will be fascinating to hear what he has to say on leadership and the church. I wonder if there will be a profanity filter, maybe a five second delay or something ;^) .
If Willow Creek hasn't brought in Jim Collins to speak (I can't remember if they have or not), they certainly should. He's the author of the best-selling business books Built To Last and Good To Great. I have not read the first one, but I'm in the middle of reading the second one. Now, I'm not the kind of person who goes out, buys a bunch of books on secular leadership, and then tries to integrate human business management principles into church. Personally, most of it doesn't work. The main reason is that businesses are organizations, churches are organisms. Businesses are also mostly made up of salaried and hourly workers; the church is mostly made up of volunteers. There are some principles that just don't make the intersection of secular and sacred.
However, reading this book, there is a principle I would like to share with you. It's something Jim Collins calls "The Stockdale Paradox". The name comes from the life of Admiral Jim Stockdale, who was the highest ranking officer in the "Hanoi Hilton" prisoner-of-war camp during the Vietnam War. Stockdale was tortured several times during his eight year stint in the camp and lived without "any prisoner's rights, no set release date, and no certainty as to whether he would even survive to see his family again." However, he did not stop being a leader. He attempted to keep morale strong in the camp, exchanged secret intelligence information with his wife, and developed a secret communication system within the camp.
Collins talks in the book how he read Stockdale's account of his experiences, and became very depressed reading of the conditions. He wondered how Stockdale could rise above everything against him in Vietnam - if Collins himself became depressed reading the story, even though he knew the happy ending (Stockdale was released, became a hero, etc.), how on earth did Stockdale deal with it when he was actually there and did not know the end of the story?
Stockdale gave a profound answer when Collins asked him later on. "I never lost faith in the end of the story. I never doubted not only that I would get out, but also that I would prevail in the end and turn the experience into the defining event of my life, which in retrospect, I would not trade."
What is the Stockdale Paradox? It's simply this: when you accept the brutal facts of reality, but you maintain an unwavering faith in the endgame and commit to prevail despite the brutal facts. You can apply this in any situation: being the underdog team in a sports competition; being a business facing some severe problems, being a church dealing with hard situations, being a Christian who is going through unbelievable trials. You have to have both sides of the paradox to truly come out of a situation better than before. If you accept the facts, yet don't have faith in what will happen in the end, you have existentialism, essentially. If you have faith in what will happen in the end, but don't accept the facts of the here and now, you have a false optimistic "pie-in-the-sky" idealism. Stockdale says that the latter type of people were the people who died the quickest in the POW camp.
Think of the Biblical characters who displayed this kind of Stockdale Paradox: Abraham when he is called to go to a foreign land - he had the promise of God but still had to face the brutal trip there (wars, kings, fighting between Sarah and her servant, etc.) Joshua took up the mantle of leadership from Moses and was told that the land of Canaan was his for the taking - but he had to take it first, facing battles, defections, sin (Achan), and more. And of course, the greatest example was Jesus.
Admiral Stockdale died in July of this past year - it's too bad, on one hand, because he would have made a great Leadership Summit guest. On the other hand, he lived an amazing life: all because he decided to face the brutal, hard facts about his situations in life, yet knew that God would see him through to the other side.
Saturday, February 11, 2006
Romantic Love and Jesus
Just in time for Valentine's Day, I read a briliant old essay from the Internet Monk. It's about romanticism in worship songs. Although I am comfortable enough in my masculinity to say "Jesus I am so in love with You" - I think the Monk has a point.
You can read it here.
On a funny note (okay, I thought it was funny), Lark News (think of it as the Christian Onion magazine - and yes, it is funny. It's not cheesy) had a fake article on romantic worship songs. You can find that here.
You can read it here.
On a funny note (okay, I thought it was funny), Lark News (think of it as the Christian Onion magazine - and yes, it is funny. It's not cheesy) had a fake article on romantic worship songs. You can find that here.
Thursday, February 09, 2006
The Prayer Of Jabez Falls Short In Africa
Here's a great article in Sojourners magazine about the calling that Bruce Wilkinson, the writer of the Prayer of Jabez, felt God had given him and why it didn't work in Africa. Very thought provoking.
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The Prayer of Jabez falls short in Africa
by David Batstone
Bruce Wilkinson, author of the best-selling book The Prayer of Jabez, made a big splash nearly four years ago when he announced his ambitious plan to help children suffering from AIDS in Africa.
Not everything for Wilkinson has gone according to plan, unfortunately. A page one feature in the Dec. 19 The Wall Street Journal captures the sad tale in a nutshell: "In 2002 Bruce Wilkinson, a Georgia preacher whose self-help prayer book had made him a rich man, heard God's call, moved to Africa and announced his intention to save one million children left orphaned by the AIDS epidemic. In October [2005], Wilkinson resigned in a huff from the African charity he founded. He abandoned his plan to house 10,000 children in a facility that was to be an orphanage, bed-and-breakfast, game reserve, Bible college, industrial park and Disneyesque tourist destination in the tiny kingdom of Swaziland. What happened in between is a story of grand hopes and inexperience, divine inspiration and human foibles. ¿[H]is departure left critics convinced he was just another in a long parade of outsiders who have come to Africa making big promises and quit the continent when local people didn't bend to their will."
It is not my aim to gloat at Wilkinson's failure. To the contrary, I mourn what this means for the millions of African children in crisis who apparently will not benefit from his efforts. I also want to honor Wilkinson's desire to help the least fortunate. It would have been easy for him to take the wealth he gained from his book sales and live a life of personal comfort.
This chain of events, however, should not pass without a moment of theological reflection. The "blessed life" that Wilkinson has helped to promote carries with it a number of assumptions about where God is present in the world, and how God acts in response to the prayers of the faithful.
The Prayer of Jabez is based on a passage out of the book of Chronicles, in which a devoted man named Jabez asks God for a favor: "Oh that you would bless me and enlarge my border, and that your hand might be with me, and that you would keep me from hurt and harm!" The fact that God honors Jabez' prayer and blesses him with great riches indicates to Wilkinson a God-principle. If we in pure heart ask God for a blessing - and do so using the very words that Jabez prayed - then God will bring wondrous gifts into our life. As The Wall Street Journal reports, Wilkinson interprets the wild commercial success of his books (roughly 20 million copies sold combined) as yet another proof of the miraculous power of the Jabez prayer. In other words, it worked for Jabez, it worked for Wilkinson, and now it should work for you. With the fiasco in Africa now behind him - and the full Journal report makes clear that fiasco is the appropriate term - I wonder if Wilkinson has reconsidered his theology.
Maybe because I spent so many years in poor regions of the globe I could never accept the prayer-in-blessing-out approach to faithful living. Straight to the point, I have known too many devoted Christians for whom life did not bring them material blessing. Their children still died of infectious diseases that plagued their village. They could not avoid the violence that dictators and ideologues so often use to cow the powerless. Their territory did not expand because their only path for survival was a daily labor with their hands. Yet they did not lose faith, or cease praying for God's blessing.
As I ponder on their lives, I find a more fitting theology for God's presence and action in the world to be laid out in the book of Hebrews. There we are encouraged to have "faith in things not yet seen," and are offered models of individuals who tried to lead devoted lives that honor God. We read that some of them did receive great material blessings, while others ended up in the dens of lions or stoned due to their principled living. We learn, in other words, that God does hear their prayers and loves them profoundly, but it does not always bring them material riches or expanded territory.
Wilkinson's doctrine in fact implies that social structures are immaterial. An individual reciting the right prayer can transcend an AIDS epidemic in his or her village or escape being bought and sold into slavery (like 27 million people on this planet yet today). Perhaps now that Wilkinson has immersed himself in Africa, he better understands that the curse of poverty is not a spiritual punishment, or an indication of a lack of faith. To bring blessings to the orphans and widows of Africa, a dramatic shift in values - political, economic, and personal - will be required. And that challenge cannot be owned by Africans alone; it falls squarely on the shoulders of us in rich nations, who enjoy such great material "blessings."
Just like the next Bible reader, I could pick out individual passages that seem to suggest that God will give us whatever we desire as long as we ask for it with a pure heart. "You can even move this mountain" with such a prayer, as Jesus teaches his disciples in the gospels. I do not summarily discount these passages, nor do I assume that we should never pray for rain in a time of drought.
But the weight of the biblical message balances heavily toward a prayer life that yields courage, love, and compassion to do the will of God. The expectation of material gain and miraculous blessings may even distract us on that pilgrimage. The passage in Hebrews calls us, based on past heroes of the faith, "to run the race in front of us," confident that devoting our lives to God's work is all the reward we will ever need.
---
The Prayer of Jabez falls short in Africa
by David Batstone
Bruce Wilkinson, author of the best-selling book The Prayer of Jabez, made a big splash nearly four years ago when he announced his ambitious plan to help children suffering from AIDS in Africa.
Not everything for Wilkinson has gone according to plan, unfortunately. A page one feature in the Dec. 19 The Wall Street Journal captures the sad tale in a nutshell: "In 2002 Bruce Wilkinson, a Georgia preacher whose self-help prayer book had made him a rich man, heard God's call, moved to Africa and announced his intention to save one million children left orphaned by the AIDS epidemic. In October [2005], Wilkinson resigned in a huff from the African charity he founded. He abandoned his plan to house 10,000 children in a facility that was to be an orphanage, bed-and-breakfast, game reserve, Bible college, industrial park and Disneyesque tourist destination in the tiny kingdom of Swaziland. What happened in between is a story of grand hopes and inexperience, divine inspiration and human foibles. ¿[H]is departure left critics convinced he was just another in a long parade of outsiders who have come to Africa making big promises and quit the continent when local people didn't bend to their will."
It is not my aim to gloat at Wilkinson's failure. To the contrary, I mourn what this means for the millions of African children in crisis who apparently will not benefit from his efforts. I also want to honor Wilkinson's desire to help the least fortunate. It would have been easy for him to take the wealth he gained from his book sales and live a life of personal comfort.
This chain of events, however, should not pass without a moment of theological reflection. The "blessed life" that Wilkinson has helped to promote carries with it a number of assumptions about where God is present in the world, and how God acts in response to the prayers of the faithful.
The Prayer of Jabez is based on a passage out of the book of Chronicles, in which a devoted man named Jabez asks God for a favor: "Oh that you would bless me and enlarge my border, and that your hand might be with me, and that you would keep me from hurt and harm!" The fact that God honors Jabez' prayer and blesses him with great riches indicates to Wilkinson a God-principle. If we in pure heart ask God for a blessing - and do so using the very words that Jabez prayed - then God will bring wondrous gifts into our life. As The Wall Street Journal reports, Wilkinson interprets the wild commercial success of his books (roughly 20 million copies sold combined) as yet another proof of the miraculous power of the Jabez prayer. In other words, it worked for Jabez, it worked for Wilkinson, and now it should work for you. With the fiasco in Africa now behind him - and the full Journal report makes clear that fiasco is the appropriate term - I wonder if Wilkinson has reconsidered his theology.
Maybe because I spent so many years in poor regions of the globe I could never accept the prayer-in-blessing-out approach to faithful living. Straight to the point, I have known too many devoted Christians for whom life did not bring them material blessing. Their children still died of infectious diseases that plagued their village. They could not avoid the violence that dictators and ideologues so often use to cow the powerless. Their territory did not expand because their only path for survival was a daily labor with their hands. Yet they did not lose faith, or cease praying for God's blessing.
As I ponder on their lives, I find a more fitting theology for God's presence and action in the world to be laid out in the book of Hebrews. There we are encouraged to have "faith in things not yet seen," and are offered models of individuals who tried to lead devoted lives that honor God. We read that some of them did receive great material blessings, while others ended up in the dens of lions or stoned due to their principled living. We learn, in other words, that God does hear their prayers and loves them profoundly, but it does not always bring them material riches or expanded territory.
Wilkinson's doctrine in fact implies that social structures are immaterial. An individual reciting the right prayer can transcend an AIDS epidemic in his or her village or escape being bought and sold into slavery (like 27 million people on this planet yet today). Perhaps now that Wilkinson has immersed himself in Africa, he better understands that the curse of poverty is not a spiritual punishment, or an indication of a lack of faith. To bring blessings to the orphans and widows of Africa, a dramatic shift in values - political, economic, and personal - will be required. And that challenge cannot be owned by Africans alone; it falls squarely on the shoulders of us in rich nations, who enjoy such great material "blessings."
Just like the next Bible reader, I could pick out individual passages that seem to suggest that God will give us whatever we desire as long as we ask for it with a pure heart. "You can even move this mountain" with such a prayer, as Jesus teaches his disciples in the gospels. I do not summarily discount these passages, nor do I assume that we should never pray for rain in a time of drought.
But the weight of the biblical message balances heavily toward a prayer life that yields courage, love, and compassion to do the will of God. The expectation of material gain and miraculous blessings may even distract us on that pilgrimage. The passage in Hebrews calls us, based on past heroes of the faith, "to run the race in front of us," confident that devoting our lives to God's work is all the reward we will ever need.
Wednesday, February 08, 2006
A 39 Word Epitaph
Josiah, a king of Judah, became king at the age of eight, began seeking the Lord at sixteen, rediscovered the Scriptures (a great story), and brought about spiritual and moral reformation in the land of Judah.
Josiah had a couple of "biographies" (which is essentially what the books of 1&2 Kings and 1&2 Chronicles are), but the best biography of Josiah is written by Jeremiah and is only 39 words long.
"'He did what was right and just, so all went well with him. He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me?' declares the Lord." (Jeremiah 22:15b-16)
If my life was stripped down to 39 words, what would be said about me when I die?
Josiah had a couple of "biographies" (which is essentially what the books of 1&2 Kings and 1&2 Chronicles are), but the best biography of Josiah is written by Jeremiah and is only 39 words long.
"'He did what was right and just, so all went well with him. He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me?' declares the Lord." (Jeremiah 22:15b-16)
If my life was stripped down to 39 words, what would be said about me when I die?
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
The Disciple's Journal Character Trait #4: Friendliness
A man and his family stopped at a gas station just outside of the new small town they were moving to. As he was pumping gas into the car, he struck up a conversation with the old-timer who was hanging out nearby.
"So...we're just moving into town. What kind of people live here?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, are the people in this town friendly or unfriendly?"
The old-timer thought about it for a minute and then asked, "Well, tell me - were the people in the town you moved from friendly or mean?"
The man replied, "Very unfriendly. They were mean-spirited and we never really got to know anyone because they were very standoffish."
The old-timer continued to chew on the piece of straw that dangled from his mouth. "Well, sir, I'm afraid that this town is very much the same way. I wish I could tell you otherwise, but good luck."
The man thanked him, got back into his car and drove away.
Ten minutes later, another car pulled into the gas station. A man got out, started pumping gas, and once again a conversation started between he and the old-timer.
"Hey, mister - my wife and family and I are moving into the upcoming town, and I was wondering if you could tell me what the people were like there. Are they nice, or are they difficult to get to know?"
"Well, tell me - were the people in the town you moved from friendly or mean?"
The man replied, "They were great! Very friendly, very open, very inviting. We enjoyed living there very much."
The old man smiled and said, "Well, good news then my friend. This town is full of people just like that."
The man smiled back, finished pumping the gas, got back into his car and drove away.
---
It's hard to be friendly in this day and age. I don't think it's because we don't want to be friendly - I think it all boils down to one thing: we are too busy. I find this is the case even for me on Sunday mornings. I desperately want to strike up conversations with people around me, and often do so. However, there are so many things that I'm thinking about, so many things that need to get done, that I often find myself saying hi to people and moving on to the next project or crisis. Last Sunday, I decided to try and stop doing this, at least as much as I can. Not only was I leading worship this last Sunday, but I was also trying to film people for a video clip we're showing at the end of the month. Basically, I was running around like crazy. As a result, there were several people I wanted to talk to but couldn't because of what I needed to do. At the end of the second service, I was supposed to run back to where I was filming again - but a couple of people came up to me and started talking to me. One of them I had met on Friday, the other I was meeting for the first time. Everything within me wanted to tell them, "I've really got to go do this filming, I'm sorry, I've got to go", but I decided I really needed to talk to them and get to know them a little bit. So I did. And the funny thing is that the people who I was supposed to film didn't show up anyway.
Although friendliness is actually a spiritual gift (it's actually under the spiritual gift of hospitality), it's something that we all as Christians should strive to be. Especially as the reputuation of Christianity continues to erode in the minds of not-yet-Christians due to the mean-spiritedness that the world sees of us. Someone once said, "I would gladly become a Christian, yet every Christian I meet seems to be an undertaker." Roger told me of a scene in the movie Amistad where the slaves knew that a certain group of people were Christians because of the "frown on their faces". I want to be a more friendly person. Friendliness is disarming.
The verse that I am memorizing this week is Romans 12:13 - "Share with God's people who are in need. Practice hospitality."
The self-evaluation questions were very good this week - here are some of them:
- Does my outward appearnce indicate friendliness?
- Am I friendly out of love for others or for my own personal gain?
- Does my friendliness depend on how friendly others are?
- Am I friendly at all times or only when I feel "on top of the world"?
- Have unpleasant encounters made me wary of strangers?
- Do I have a desire to be friendly but feel inhibited?
- Do my moods radically affect my friendliness?
- Am I cooperating with God to become a person who can be friendly to all people?
"So...we're just moving into town. What kind of people live here?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, are the people in this town friendly or unfriendly?"
The old-timer thought about it for a minute and then asked, "Well, tell me - were the people in the town you moved from friendly or mean?"
The man replied, "Very unfriendly. They were mean-spirited and we never really got to know anyone because they were very standoffish."
The old-timer continued to chew on the piece of straw that dangled from his mouth. "Well, sir, I'm afraid that this town is very much the same way. I wish I could tell you otherwise, but good luck."
The man thanked him, got back into his car and drove away.
Ten minutes later, another car pulled into the gas station. A man got out, started pumping gas, and once again a conversation started between he and the old-timer.
"Hey, mister - my wife and family and I are moving into the upcoming town, and I was wondering if you could tell me what the people were like there. Are they nice, or are they difficult to get to know?"
"Well, tell me - were the people in the town you moved from friendly or mean?"
The man replied, "They were great! Very friendly, very open, very inviting. We enjoyed living there very much."
The old man smiled and said, "Well, good news then my friend. This town is full of people just like that."
The man smiled back, finished pumping the gas, got back into his car and drove away.
---
It's hard to be friendly in this day and age. I don't think it's because we don't want to be friendly - I think it all boils down to one thing: we are too busy. I find this is the case even for me on Sunday mornings. I desperately want to strike up conversations with people around me, and often do so. However, there are so many things that I'm thinking about, so many things that need to get done, that I often find myself saying hi to people and moving on to the next project or crisis. Last Sunday, I decided to try and stop doing this, at least as much as I can. Not only was I leading worship this last Sunday, but I was also trying to film people for a video clip we're showing at the end of the month. Basically, I was running around like crazy. As a result, there were several people I wanted to talk to but couldn't because of what I needed to do. At the end of the second service, I was supposed to run back to where I was filming again - but a couple of people came up to me and started talking to me. One of them I had met on Friday, the other I was meeting for the first time. Everything within me wanted to tell them, "I've really got to go do this filming, I'm sorry, I've got to go", but I decided I really needed to talk to them and get to know them a little bit. So I did. And the funny thing is that the people who I was supposed to film didn't show up anyway.
Although friendliness is actually a spiritual gift (it's actually under the spiritual gift of hospitality), it's something that we all as Christians should strive to be. Especially as the reputuation of Christianity continues to erode in the minds of not-yet-Christians due to the mean-spiritedness that the world sees of us. Someone once said, "I would gladly become a Christian, yet every Christian I meet seems to be an undertaker." Roger told me of a scene in the movie Amistad where the slaves knew that a certain group of people were Christians because of the "frown on their faces". I want to be a more friendly person. Friendliness is disarming.
The verse that I am memorizing this week is Romans 12:13 - "Share with God's people who are in need. Practice hospitality."
The self-evaluation questions were very good this week - here are some of them:
- Does my outward appearnce indicate friendliness?
- Am I friendly out of love for others or for my own personal gain?
- Does my friendliness depend on how friendly others are?
- Am I friendly at all times or only when I feel "on top of the world"?
- Have unpleasant encounters made me wary of strangers?
- Do I have a desire to be friendly but feel inhibited?
- Do my moods radically affect my friendliness?
- Am I cooperating with God to become a person who can be friendly to all people?
Saturday, February 04, 2006
Movie Review #1: Primer
There's a guy at my church named Joe. He's a great guy. Not just because he's a Colorado Avalanche fan. Not just that he's married to a wonderful lady named Cindy. But also because he loves movies. Not just any movie, mind you. But good movies. For example, Crash = good movie. Pearl Harbor = cruddy movie. (Although I still haven't heard his verdict on a movie I let him borrow, one I like a lot called Pi.)
Anyway, I've seen a lot of answered prayers lately, which is a good thing. A real good thing. One of my prayers that I've been praying is that I would find someone else with a passion for good movies, movies that make you think, movies that cause your entire day or even week to be disrupted because you're still thinking about the doggone thing. Joe and I talked a week or two ago that it would be cool to get a movie discussion group going sometime in the near future. I like the idea a lot. We all watch the same movie, one of us comes up with some questions, and we talk about the movie. In the meantime (and perhaps even after this group starts up), I thought I would do some short movie reviews every once in awhile as I come across good, no great movies.
So - today is my first one.
Primer is a movie that I picked up about four months ago, but didn't watch it in its entirety the first time. The main reason why is that the sound editing in the movie is not that great. Of course, if you consider that this movie was made for $7,000 - yet still won a prize at the Sundance Film Festival in 2004, you let little irritations like sound editing slip. But because I couldn't hear it very well the first time on my T.V. downstairs, I didn't really get into it. So I picked it up again this week and this time I watched it on my laptop with headphones. This is how I like to watch my movies now - yes, I'm weird. It's amazing, though, what you pick up when you listen to a movie with headphones. It makes it a lot easier to pick up the plot and understand the dialogue.
Anyway, this movie is very good. It takes a familiar premise to movies - time travel - but rather than dealing so much with what takes place during the time travel (as the very cruddy movie Timeline did), or dealing with how the "time traveling device" works - this movie mostly deals with the consequences that take place when two guys react in completely different ways when this time travel is discovered. It's a "heady" movie, believe me - I still don't really understand how they really discovered a way to travel back in time. But I like the approach, the characters are good, and again - the fact that this movie was made for only $7,000 makes me hopeful for the future of movies. This kind of movie proves that you don't need a $100 million dollar budget to do a good movie about science-fiction related topics.
Time travel can be really cheesy in movies. This movie deals with this potentially cheesy subject in a great way: rather than the ability to magically transport back seven thousand years in the past or forward into the future - you can only travel back as long as the time that you spend in the machine. Once they have that figured out, there's another problem. If you travel back to that morning, you must have planned the day out in such a way that you don't run into yourself during that day. It also deals well with the so-called "grandfather problem" of time travel: if I go back and kill my grandfather, does that mean that I am not born in the future, so then I can't really kill my grandfather?
At first, these guys use this time travel to make money on the stock market. But then they start thinking about other things they want, or people they want to get back at: after all, if it doesn't work out, they can always go back and change it again. And that's when problems arise. These guys can swear themselves to secrecy, that they won't tell anyone else - but what if they go back in time, and their original selves find out about this time travel idea - what's to prevent them to tell anyone?
Yes, I know - it's heady stuff. It comes to an incredibly climactic ending that I had to rewind a couple of times just to understand what was going on.
Primer is a great movie - one that not everyone will like (the guy at Blockbuster told me he didn't like it because "nothing really happens in the first hour.") A lot happens in the first hour. I guess he meant that no one dies or goes postal or something. Anyway, I give Primer 3 1/2 flux capacitors out of 4.
Anyway, I've seen a lot of answered prayers lately, which is a good thing. A real good thing. One of my prayers that I've been praying is that I would find someone else with a passion for good movies, movies that make you think, movies that cause your entire day or even week to be disrupted because you're still thinking about the doggone thing. Joe and I talked a week or two ago that it would be cool to get a movie discussion group going sometime in the near future. I like the idea a lot. We all watch the same movie, one of us comes up with some questions, and we talk about the movie. In the meantime (and perhaps even after this group starts up), I thought I would do some short movie reviews every once in awhile as I come across good, no great movies.
So - today is my first one.
Primer is a movie that I picked up about four months ago, but didn't watch it in its entirety the first time. The main reason why is that the sound editing in the movie is not that great. Of course, if you consider that this movie was made for $7,000 - yet still won a prize at the Sundance Film Festival in 2004, you let little irritations like sound editing slip. But because I couldn't hear it very well the first time on my T.V. downstairs, I didn't really get into it. So I picked it up again this week and this time I watched it on my laptop with headphones. This is how I like to watch my movies now - yes, I'm weird. It's amazing, though, what you pick up when you listen to a movie with headphones. It makes it a lot easier to pick up the plot and understand the dialogue.
Anyway, this movie is very good. It takes a familiar premise to movies - time travel - but rather than dealing so much with what takes place during the time travel (as the very cruddy movie Timeline did), or dealing with how the "time traveling device" works - this movie mostly deals with the consequences that take place when two guys react in completely different ways when this time travel is discovered. It's a "heady" movie, believe me - I still don't really understand how they really discovered a way to travel back in time. But I like the approach, the characters are good, and again - the fact that this movie was made for only $7,000 makes me hopeful for the future of movies. This kind of movie proves that you don't need a $100 million dollar budget to do a good movie about science-fiction related topics.
Time travel can be really cheesy in movies. This movie deals with this potentially cheesy subject in a great way: rather than the ability to magically transport back seven thousand years in the past or forward into the future - you can only travel back as long as the time that you spend in the machine. Once they have that figured out, there's another problem. If you travel back to that morning, you must have planned the day out in such a way that you don't run into yourself during that day. It also deals well with the so-called "grandfather problem" of time travel: if I go back and kill my grandfather, does that mean that I am not born in the future, so then I can't really kill my grandfather?
At first, these guys use this time travel to make money on the stock market. But then they start thinking about other things they want, or people they want to get back at: after all, if it doesn't work out, they can always go back and change it again. And that's when problems arise. These guys can swear themselves to secrecy, that they won't tell anyone else - but what if they go back in time, and their original selves find out about this time travel idea - what's to prevent them to tell anyone?
Yes, I know - it's heady stuff. It comes to an incredibly climactic ending that I had to rewind a couple of times just to understand what was going on.
Primer is a great movie - one that not everyone will like (the guy at Blockbuster told me he didn't like it because "nothing really happens in the first hour.") A lot happens in the first hour. I guess he meant that no one dies or goes postal or something. Anyway, I give Primer 3 1/2 flux capacitors out of 4.
Friday, February 03, 2006
Bono's Prayer Breakfast Comments
can be found here.
My favorite phrase from his comments is that "religion often gets in the way of God."
And I like how he referred to Jim Wallis' book "God's Politics". Great book.
My favorite phrase from his comments is that "religion often gets in the way of God."
And I like how he referred to Jim Wallis' book "God's Politics". Great book.
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