I saw that on a church sign yesterday as we were driving. Duh – if they hated him without reason then there’s no reason, is there?
If that’s the church’s next sermon it’s going to be very short.
Posted in General Conversation | 17 Comments »A couple of days ago I noticed those bush/vines with the bright yellow flowers are coming out (I looked them up so I could tell you the real name – they’re called ‘forsythia’).
To me those signal ‘Spring is beginning’. This is my favorite time of year, visually. I look forward to seeing blossom everywhere soon, followed by that intensely bright green color of the tree leaves when they are new. There are crocuses and snowdrops around and one or two daffodils are out. It’s a time of rapid change and growth, but not so rapid that there aren’t at least a few days to go appreciate each new thing.
Read the rest of this news item »
I remember a particular day a number of years ago when I was in the library looking for childrens’ books. My children were at the age where books needed to have lots of pictures and not too many words to be interesting.
As I looked through I realized “Hey, all I’m looking for is good stories. What is it with all these books that have ‘agendas’?” It seemed to me that the UK books did a little better at simply being ‘a great story’ than the US ones but that could have been because only the best British books made it across the Atlantic.
This is what I mean by ‘agendas’. There were lots of “I have a new baby brother” books. Agenda? To help a child adjust to having a new sibling. A great many of the books were like this – they had a message they were trying to get across, first and foremost. They weren’t imaginative or funny or any of the things I was hoping for. I was thankful and relieved whenever I ran across books like Kipper whose only agenda I could detect was to be silly.
Read the rest of this news item »
In his article What Lessons Can Progressives Learn from Evangelicals? Zack Exley writes:
Posted in General Conversation | 3 Comments »Bell and Claiborne are two of the better-known young voices of a broad, explicitly nonviolent, anti-imperialist and anticapitalist theology that is surging at the heart of white, suburban Evangelical Christianity. I first saw this movement at a local, conservative, nondenominational church in North Carolina where the pastor preached a sermon called “Two Fists in the Face of Empire.” Looking further, I found a movement whose book sales tower over their secular progressive counterparts in Amazon rankings; whose sermon podcasts reach thousands of listeners each week; and whose messages, in one form or another, reach millions of churchgoers. Bell alone preaches to more than 10,000 people every Sunday, with more than 50,000 listening in online.
[...] George Barna, who studies trends among Christians for clients such as the Billy Graham Evangelical Association and Focus on the Family, calls it simply “The Revolution” and its adherents “Revolutionaries.”
Elaine, who helps Jim with Off The Map administration, sent me a link about “Conversation Week” recently, which evidently is March 25-31.
I went to the Conversation Week website a couple of days ago expecting to find a list of events for this week. I didn’t find that, but was interested to see their list of guidelines for the conversations they want people to have:
I also like their list of ten suggested questions, which have a lot to do with MTWABP (making the world a better place). Even though I didn’t do anything to get officially involved in Conversation Week, maybe we can discuss one of their questions today in honor of it. Here’s one:
When do you feel most alive?
African American preacher and ethicist Howard Thurman said “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”
Jim interviewed Eliza today at the Off The Map conference, Inside the Missional Matrix. The podcast of the interview is here:
Interview with a missional minded atheist.
In the interview, Jim talked to Eliza about her experience taking a Lutheran class. You can find Eliza’s detailed reports on that class here:
Benjamin and Megan Ady attended the conference. Megan has shared her reflections about it over on our Church Rater blog.
Posted in An atheist (Eliza) in Lutheran class | 13 Comments »Yesterday I drove up to Mundelein Seminary to hear two lectures by NT Wright. His two lecture topics were Biblical Foundations for Sacramental Theology and Sacraments of the New Creation (the links lead to my lecture notes, which I already posted). (Update: you can order the CDs of the lectures using this form)
The seminary invited anyone to attend: registration was free and even included free lunch provided by them in their refectory.
Read the rest of this news item »
This was the second of two lectures by NT Wright that I heard yesterday at Mundelein Seminary. My notes on the first one are here:
NT Wright: Biblical Foundations for Sacramental Theology
I didn’t feel like I followed this as well as the first lecture, plus I took these notes by hand (my laptop battery had run out) – so they may be more disjointed than my first lecture notes.
There was a form given out for buying CDs of the two lectures I heard, plus one NT Wright gave the night before to faculty only. I expect if you contact Mundelein you can buy them. They were charging $7 per lecture or $18 for the set. Update: here’s the order form for CDs of the lectures: NT Wright 2007 recording order form
Through inaugurated eschatology we share in and implement the newness of resurrection.
This approach won’t eliminate all problems but hopefully will create windows to let in fresh light, not least in ecumenical discussions.
Read the rest of this news item »
These are my notes on the first of two lectures by NT Wright which I heard yesterday. (Update: you can order the CDs of the lectures using this form)
I found myself very engaged — I enjoyed listening to him. He’s a masterful speaker whose talk is an art form in itself — he puts his words together more carefully than I’ve heard from a Christian speaker since I heard John Stott speak almost two decades ago. I was wondering how much theological jargon I’d have to navigate but he stayed away from that — he is evidently skilled in positioning his talk for the audience expected. I loved that he used several words I don’t hear much in the circles I move in – but rather than being drawn from systematic theology textbooks, they exploited the richness of the English language. I love to hear talks and read books in which people do that.
Read the rest of this news item »