michael spencer...

...was bitten 2x and lives to blog ab it here: toward a Christian approach to homosexuals and homosexuality.

the sometimes two-dimensionalization of media coverage

daniel pulliam of the excellent get religion blog revisits the recent story where a pastor fired a long-time sunday school teacher who was a woman.

sometimes it's easy for a media outlet to collapse a story down to a simple binary instead of exploring its complexity.

An Around the Room On The Emerging Church

Justin Taylor, the English Standard Version Bible Project Manager at Crossway , has written a primer on the emerging church.

taylor's primer is featured in a recent 9Marks newsletter on the emerging church, which also features:

• Pastor's and Theologian's Forum on the Emerging Church with contributions from
  
  
• D. A. Carson
• Mark Driscoll
• Michael Horton
• Mike McKinley
• Daniel Montgomery
• Brent Thomas
• Carl Trueman
• Jonathan Leeman
  
  
• The Emerging Consequences of Ideas with summaries of the contributions of
  
  
• Walter Brueggeman
• Hans Georg Gadamer
• Stan Grenz
• John Franke
• Stanley Hauerwas
• George A Lindbeck
• Jurgen Moltmann
• Nancey Murphy
• Miroslav Volv
• NT Wright

I'm looking forward to reviewing this.

unusual stories of direct encounters

a friend of mine and I are discussing the idea of relying on experience overmuch. i don't know what to tell you about this story.

it reminds me of a what a charismatic catholic blind date told me one evening. she said that she was praying to mary when mary said to her, "what are talking to me for? talk to Jesus!"

it reminds me of a story a seminary prof told me of a man who was preaching one day and suddenly interrupted himself with, "There he is! He's beautiful! He's beautiful!" and then dropped dead.

for your consideration.

kudos to the rev john stevens

"Twelve-year-old Joe recently asked Jesus to live in his heart.

Yet the church where Joe accepted his Savior not even two weeks before will no longer allow the biracial boy to enter.

On Aug. 6, during its scheduled Sunday night business meeting, Fellowship Baptist Church in Saltillo voted not to accept blacks within the church. More specifically, the congregation also voted Joe out and said he could not return.

That evening Fellowship Baptist did not just say goodbye to Joe and an entire race of humans. With that decision the church's pastor, the Rev. John Stevens, resigned....

That evening Fellowship Baptist did not just say goodbye to Joe and an entire race of humans. With that decision the church's pastor, the Rev. John Stevens, resigned..."

- entire story

ht: jesus outside the box

UPDATE: "After the Daily Journal contacted Fellowship Baptist members, they gathered Aug. 17 to form a response. Mike Dillard, who acted as spokesperson for the church, said the congregation "categorically denies" accusations that the church took such a vote and feels the charge is an attempt by a party to do them harm."

- link to updated story

It'll be interesting to see if this piece gets picked up and investigated by a larger media outlet.

Hands from the Past

from Wikipedia:

"The hand paintings seen here at the Cueva de las Manos in Santa Cruz Province, Argentina were created between 13,000 and 9,300 years ago using bone-made pipes for spraying the paint on the wall. Most of the hands are left hands, which suggests that painters held the spraying pipe with their dexterous hand. The cave is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site."

Seeking A Fresh View of Jesus

I am really wanting to get a fresh view of Jesus.

I find that I tend to get lost in religious busyness and theological and ecclesial blah blah blah. It's not that I don't think the latter has its place - it does. It's just that I think it can't be the core of religious experience - the experience of a real and daily relationship with God. I want more. I want my walk with God to be transpropositional (which - of course - includes the propositional). David Brainard used to talk about people who talked about the shell rather than talking about the nut. That's what I'm talking about; I'm tired of all shell all the time. And I'm talking about myself.

To that end, today I made a couple of decisions (I'm only sharing some of them).

I plan to read each Gospel again while reading at least one excellent commentary for each one. I like Luke for its apologetic value and so I'm going to begin there. I just ordered the 1st volume of Darrell Bock's set on Luke. I'll be using DA Carson's excellent little volume on best NT commentaries and other sources to guide me as I choose commentaries. I'll probably hit Donald Guthrie and Luke itself of course while I wait for Bock's volume to arrive.

Bock recently blogged on commentaries he recommends.

I wonder if we might convince Scot McKnight, who edited the excellent Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels, to do the same?

bloggers i would like to meet f2f one day

inspired by pernell goodyear:

• scot mcknight
• andrew jones
• jordon cooper
• justin taylor
• michael spencer
• ted olsen
• steve mccoy
  

Update: Please don't assume my list is exhaustive! :)

A Change of Season: The End of the Faithmaps Discussion Group

Yesterday, I announced to the faithmaps discussion group that I had decided to end the group sometime on Friday 1 Sept. Here is some of what I wrote in the announcement:

------------------

It is with sadness that I let you know that after five years of moderating the faithmaps discussion group, I've decided to end the group.

I have come to the conclusion that my current life situation and calling is such that I no longer feel that I can give moderating this group the time that it needs and deserves.

What's true now that wasn't when we started in May of 2001:

* Beth and I co-lead KatrinaGrace which just decided to branch out into working with Habitat for Humanity in Slidell, LA in addition to continuing the work we're doing with Compassion Ministries just north of NO. By God's grace we're planning on sending a team a month between October 2006 and Nov 2007 to New Orleans' North Shore. Our church's Sunday 27 Aug service is entirely dedicated to KatrinaRelief. We are very excited about this work. 60 folks on 8 Teams have so far gone down and we're hoping to send a lot more.

* Since April of 2005 I've been serving on my local church's Leadership Development Team and just a few weeks ago we launched our mentor/protege - workshop based process. I'm one of the Workshop Facilitators. We've been able to implement a lot of the transpropositional approaches we've developed and discussed here.

* [I've been getting professional writing jobs with a national Christian organization].

* I continue to post to my blog almost daily.

* And, as I've mentioned, three years ago I executed a major life change and intentionally began devoting less time to my online activities and more time to the four most important people in my life.

* And then there's the whole full-time job with USA TODAY thing which really cuts into my free time. ;)


And so, sometime on Friday 1 September, I plan to turn the group off. I do not plan to delete the group. Archives will still be searchable and accessible to the public as always. There is such a rich treasure store of posts here that I would hate to see lost.

One day I may start another group or restart this one. But I don't know if that will happen.

I don't intend not to participate in groups, just not to moderate one. So you'll probably see me around.

It's my hope that the community and discussions that began here will continue in some context. And so one reason I wanted to give several day notice was to invite those on this list with other groups - or those on this list that wish to start new groups - to feel perfectly free to solicit members here during the next 9 days.

But it is a change and it is a loss and I will miss the group that is faithmaps. I know there is more to say but I can't put it all into words. Maybe I'll be able to betw now and 1 Sept.

Thank you all for all you've given me here. I'm very grateful. I have made mistakes as a moderator and you've been patient and gracious to me

This, of course, isn't goodbye. It's just a change of season.

--------------------------------

The driving force in my decision was the amount of time that I could dedicate to the group. Our environment was unique because there were only two criteria of participation: interest in "theology, leadership, & praxis in the emerging church" and respect. Anyone could join and this led to some rather interesting discussion! I had come to the conclusion that the group needed more constant attention than I could give it and rather than setting up a team of moderators - which I thought might still take a lot of my time and effort - I decided to let folks explore other options.

It was not an easy decision and one that I make with some sadness.

I gained so much from this community. The faithstory online small groups that we've iteratively offered were wonderful. I made some great friends thru the group. But I felt that for me it was time to move on.

faithmaps.org, however, will continue...as will this blog.

katrina: where did the money go?

Someone commented to our earlier post about Katrina stats one year later:

" My heart goes out to those rebuilding their lives!

Are there any sound sources that have tracked where all the money has gone? Is this even possible?"

Charity Navigator - a great place to go when you're evaluating charities - has posted a "One Year Later" series of articles analyzing how the philantropic response went.

katrina by the numbers, part 2: 1 year later

USA TODAY poll in today's paper:

• 16% - those who say that their lives are back to normal one year later
• 56% - those with kids under 18 who say that their kids have been negatively affected by the storm
• 25% - those who have not moved back
• 20% - number of those who have moved back but believe they may need to move out again
• 14% - those currently unemployed
  
• "those who say they are experiencing a great deal or quite a bit of"
• anxiety - 27%
• trouble sleeping - 26%
• depression - 23%
• "difficulties in marriage or other family relationships" - 18%
• Top 5 Most Difficult Things to Deal with Since Katrina:
1. damaged property
2. financial problems
3. mental or emotional sate
4. "getting our lives back on track"
5. "no longer having a job"
• Top 5 Types of Help Most Desired to Recover from Katrina
1. $
2. help with damage or contractors
3. more FEMA help
4. "a place to stay"
5. a job

- USA TODAY related story.

- katrina by the numbers, part 1: the impact of the storm

Office 2007 Beta 2: MS Word

I had been working on an article and the editor asked me to use track changes in Word. My Office 2000 Word Track Changes functionality didn't seem terribly robust, and so I downloaded Office 2007 Beta 2.

I really like it and it seems to be a major upgrade. I've only been using it a few days but already I've very much appreciated the rich Review functionality. Redmond has also moved away from menu based options toward what they call "The Ribbon." The wikipedia article puts it well:

"These applications have been selected for the UI overhaul, because those applications center around document authoring and present a multitude of options to the same regard."

You can now blog from within Word, though that functionality has been available as an add-in for a while now.

It costs $1.50 to download Office 2007 Beta 2 and the product will cease functioning on 1 Feb 2007.

I definitely intend to upgrade.

seth godin's advice for authors

here

ht: steve addison

The Spiritual Journey of Bob Dylan

"What makes Rolling Thunder and the Gospel Years unique, however, is that it is the only project of its kind to explore the years during which Dylan was scandalizing the pop-culture world with recordings and performances that proclaimed Jesus Christ as the only way to salvation.

"A lot of Dylan fans are not understanding or tolerant of Dylan's gospel period or the music," Gilbert told WORLD. "But they really should love that period. That's why I was happy to delve into the subject and help give an honest appraisal."

- World Magazine Cover Story on Rolling Thunder and the Gospel Years - a documentary that delves into Dylan's publicly Christian period.

ht: andrew jackson

a great quote from john wimber

"Don’t be afraid of pain. All my life I’ve been afraid of pain. But pain’s not so bad. I’ve been in the valley and it’s not so bad. In fact the view is wonderful. You never get to see Jesus quite as well as you do in the valley.

It isn’t prosperity that gives you the complete, the indepth, the intimate view of Jesus. It’s pain. It’s in the midst of pain, it’s in the midst of heartbreak, it’s in the midst of the rendering of relationships, its in the midst of tragic circumstances that you get the heart of God revealed to you.

So don’t be afraid of pain. If God’s allowed it he’ll have purpose in it. . . I love and know my Savior today more than I have ever known him. And I am now 31 years in the Lord. I’m so grateful for cancer. I’m so grateful that I went through it. Because I could never have known Jesus the way I now know him. And frankly I could never have known my wife the way I now know her."

- wikipedia on john wimber

ht: steve addison

"Getting Things Done"

This book by David Allen is rockin my world. I'm still wrapping my brain around it but it's already making a difference. Definitely get the book, but the wikipedia summary is good and here's the whole process in a few simple graphs (pick one).

here's another nice summary.

also see

- the 43 folders wiki
- lifehack
- a Wired News story on the cultesque status of this movement

- for a summary of various software options for implementing GTD, see Getting Things Done Software Systems, part 1 and part 2 by downloadsquad.

the gospel, justice and culture

i've been really enjoying and benefiting from listening to some of the talks given at the May 2006 Reform and Resurgence Conference. ed stetzer gave two really helpful talks on culture - one more visionary and one more practical. and tim keller's talk on the gospel and his talk on social justice were both very good. audio and video links are avail at the conference site.

these talks are highly recommended.

stetzer also pointed everyone to a very helpful demographic resource peoplegroups.

Darrell Bock on Getting Started with the New Perspective on Paul

Bock suggests some bibliographical starting points for studying the NPP.

fred peatross...

...has ended his summer sabbatical and has restarted Abductive Columns.

a seed of hope

"When he was told a Jewish man was the donor, Elias was confused, the doctor said.

"There is a war between Israelis and Arabs on the one hand, and he is getting the cornea of a Jewish man, who was killed by an Arab missile," Rehany said."

- ABC news link