A while ago, I posted that Cedarville College was lame for uninviting Shane Claiborne. Apex Community Church in Dayton had invited him so the disappointed Cedarville students could hear him.  Thought it was cool that they posted the audio on their site.  If I am ever exiled to live on Ohio, I’d worship here. 

“Moses is Dead. Ben Hur Too.” – this was the lame title that  Christianity  Todaygave it.

 Generally I appreciate CT’s stuff  but this seemed a little insensitive.  Come on CT, you’re classier then that.

 Speaking of classy though, Mr. Heston had some.  May his family  experience God’s comfort and peace.

 For whatever reason, I have fond childhood memories of Heston           yelling at Pharaoh to “Let my people go!”.   

I mean, apparently they prefer a dead theology as opposed to a living one.  They prefer dead Scriptures as opposed to  the living breathing one.

Hey, after reading this book, I may disagree with Dr. Enns.  I may even be uncomfortable with his ideas but to suspend and debate to fire him?   Please, don’t call yourself a Christian school.  Certainly if this was an obvious moral scandal, I’d agree but come on, because his idea falls outside the Westminster Confession.   

I was glad to read that majority of his collegues support him and voted not to suspend him.  Thankfully there is grace there.  But little is demonstrated from the trustees.  

A part of me hopes he leaves Westminster and heads over to Biblical, like Steve Taylor. 

Christianity Today has a bunch of links

Click here

I gave up coffee for Lent and alcohol during Holy Week.

In addition, I read through the gospels during Lent and made an effort to reflect during my quiet times on how I can live more missionally.

Now, Lent is over.  Coffee is in my mug and I’ve enjoyed a beer or two since and I am reflecting on these fasts. 

 Never will I forget the pastor who gave up cursing for Lent.  If you know me, this is one of my favorite stories.  I remember him yelling at me for something trivial and cursing in the heat of the moment.  As he was calming down, he got reagitated and yelled at me for upsetting him to the point that made him break his Lenten vow (which had been broken several times by then).  I being, frustrated and now confused, retorted by stating that I didn’t understand the purpose of his vow in the first place.  What did it mean? Was he going to drop the F-bomb on Easter Sunday.  Imagine him saying at the Easter Service, “The Lord Has Risen!  F — yeah!”

Then there are the vows that give up something they don’t really love.  The idea is to sacrifice something important to you.  So it’s in that spirit, that I have compiled a list of things that I am going to give up post-Lent. 

I will continue to not watch the 700 Club.

I will continue to not watch American Idol. 

I will roll my eyes every time I hear the names Joel Osteen, Benny Hinn, Joyce Meyer, and John Hagee.

I will suppress my gag-reflex when I hear the name Pat Robertson. 

I like 60% of Chuck Colson’s ministry.  Yep, I just did an analysis.  It took me all the time it takes most people to make up statistics, which according to the bureau of fraudulent statistics, is 4.2 seconds (which was also the fastest time at the NFL Combine.  Not sure what the connection is but why am I going to spend anymore time arguing with made up numbers). That said, this breakpoint post was great.  I can’t believe it, I’m outraged! And I am boycotting someone or something sometime soon!   Here’s some of it: 

“The Olympic committee, back in 2001, said choosing Beijing would be a catalyst for change in China. It “may help to liberalize a country,” said the committee’s vice president, Thomas Bach of Germany. But that will not happen when, as the London Daily Mail puts it, you “kow tow” to the host country, and you tell athletes to keep quiet—which is exactly what is happening.To comply with the international Olympic Charter, Britain’s Olympic athletes are being forced to sign contracts promising they will not say anything about China’s human-rights abuses. If they violate the contract, athletes will find themselves on a plane headed home. The contract could mean that an athlete “who witnesses someone being mistreated on the way to a stadium” could not talk to colleagues about it. And they would have to “exercise self-censorship” on blogs and e-mails.  And while U.S. athletes may speak freely—they cannot do so at any official Olympic venue or press conference. Come on.  

Read the entire article here.  Chuck even gives a shout-out to Spielberg.  

Like other bloggers, I am intrigued by the new Pew Forum Church Study. 

What struck me the most was that “more than 40 percent of respondents told pollsters that they had changed their religious affiliation since childhood.”  This makes a great deal of sense to me. 

Many people I know who grew up in traditional upbringing end up at a non-traditional church post-college.  I’ve seen evidence of the opposite as well in those that grew up in relaxed, seeker-sensitive congregations looking for something “deeper” in liturgical-type churches. 

To me, this is part of the reactionary way of life.  But I am not convinced that the reaction is always from guilt, anger or frustration.  Sometimes I think it comes out of a need for balance and a reaction against the idea of “organized religion”

The need for balance and the fact that churches have not made that great of a case that this is where you should be to worship God.  The case that is usually made is, “Come and act like us.  Oh and face this direction while singing these songs.  Oh and make this face when you sing, it looks more sincere …”

Though I am a pastor, I am not worried (I’m a man of faith for crying out loud! ;-).  It isn’t the worst thing if some churches shut down.  My hope is that healthier thinking gatherings and congregations will rise up and this will be the next reaction, coming and worshipping in church because we used to not have one. 

In the meantime, you’ll have to tolerate a lot more doomsday and the sky is falling types of sermons/books/conversations.  I’ve heard people say things like, “Well it makes sense.  People can’t stay married to the same person all their lives, they can’t stay in the same church either”.  It’s a little trite since none of us remember making eternal vows to any one local congregation.  No offense but you usually hear these types of sentiments from middle-aged traditional people who are clinging to hold on to whatever is left of that “old time religion”.  Brother, put down the VHS.  Welcome to the world of Blu Ray. 

You can read all you want about the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life here. 

As mentioned in an earlier post, I’ve been catching up on Derek Webb’s podcasts. He talks about the story behind Wedding Dress on Podcast 12.  Check it out here.

 I won’t ruin the story and chances are you have said and felt similar things that he describes, but it’s reasons like this why I appreciate this guy.   

So there I was surfing the net and I stumbled upon a site entitled the “discernment resource”.  How thoughtful, another watchdog site against any Christian idea that is somewhat progressive.  I read about the concerns of Rick Warren and Billy Hybels and of course the Emergent Church.   So I clicked on the first article under the emergent church and could barely get out of the first sentence.  Here it is:    “Unfortunately, todays church is caught in a paradigm shift. That is, the church is moving from a modern church, where teaching fundamental Bible doctrine is the norm, to a post-modern, or transformational church in which loud, watered down, seeker-sensitive services are the order of the day.” Want to check the remainder of the article and see the context?  You should – click here. 

This is what I read, “Unfortunately, the church is changing, because the world is changing and because both of these are made up of people, this unfortunately means that people are changing.  The church is moving from what it Jesus had meant (you know how we did church from 1950-1989 or whatever arbitrary date that is defined as the “good old days”), where milk flowed like honey and the land was plentiful, where we had our doctrine, hermeneutics and translations right.  Now we’re headed to …

Pardon the sarcasm, I didn’t really mean it.  Well … anyway, although I could go on and on about the mistakes, incorrect assumptions and flawed thinking (and please don’t blame it on the Bible), I would like to just talk about that first line, “Unfortunately the world is changing …”  It’s not unfortunate.

The world is changing because people are changing.  The world that writer changed from something else to the one that he enjoys, this is the reality of life.  We cannot stop time, we cannot dwell too much in the past, we ought not to curse the future, but be faithful stewards of it.  It is my belief that the emerging church conversation is part of this stewardship.

I was honored to do an infant dedication yesterday.

And you know the drill.  You ask a set of questions to the parents to promise to raise the child up in a Christian home.  Then you ask a set of questions to the church as a community to commit to invest in these young souls.  Now, I don’t know if EVERYBODY said, “we do” but I heard a lot of them.  

Here we are, still can’t get more children’s ministry workers, vbs volunteers or nursery staff.  Maybe I need to rephrase the question.

Good news is I didn’t drop the child.  Of course, she refused to be held by me but I checked with the legalists, it still counts as an infant dedication.  Score one more for the good guys!  (Sarcastically yours, tim)