There is this new website RethinkChristianity, it's a site trying to promote a new way of looking at Christianity, part of the Emerging Church movement. Anyway, the guys that run the site post a question every week (they just started a couple of weeks ago) and open up the question for folks to send in videos of their answers to the question.
Last week the question was: Why do you think so many people are questioning the traditional ways of doing church?
Go to the site. Check out some of the videos. Let me know what you think about what these folks have to say about this question.
I'm not going to put my opinion out there quite yet. I will say that I agree with some of what is said, and don't agree with some of it too.
I am on the fence when it comes to the Emergent Church, but I think that these guys, Mark Scandrette, Tony Jones, and Doug Pagitt, have some good things to offer and I think the questions that they are posing are very relevant to Christians today and need to be addressed. So, I hope that this website takes off....
Let me know what you've got.
... and the valley doesn't differ from the kitchen sink.
Friday, August 1, 2008
Monday, July 7, 2008
What I'm reading now...
I'm not much of a reader. I'm slow, for some reason I can't skim, I have to take in every word that's on the page. I also don't like fiction or anything that I won't learn something from, so the books that I read are sort of heavy and I have to underline and write in them - which takes me even longer to get through. However, recently I have had this craving to learn and read more about all sorts of things. I have found myself randomly buying books (I don't ever buy a book unless I know for sure it is good) and checking out lots of books from the library.
I wanted to share what I have been reading recently:
Jesus For President - Shane Claiborne
Eat Well: A Spiritual Road Map - Various Contributors, published by Culture Is Not Optional
Christianity and the Social Crisis in the 21st Century - Walter Rauschenbusch (The 100th anniversary edition has commentary at the end of each chapter by folks such as Tony Campolo and Jim Wallis for how what Rauschenbusch said in 1907 still relates to us now.)
Red Letter Christians - Tony Campolo
and...
I just recently picked up the Archaeological Study Bible - it's pretty much amazing and offers archaeological, cultural and historical background throughout. It's pretty interesting stuff and offers a new spin on some of the bible's familiar stories.
That's my two cents for the day...
I wanted to share what I have been reading recently:
Jesus For President - Shane Claiborne
Eat Well: A Spiritual Road Map - Various Contributors, published by Culture Is Not Optional
Christianity and the Social Crisis in the 21st Century - Walter Rauschenbusch (The 100th anniversary edition has commentary at the end of each chapter by folks such as Tony Campolo and Jim Wallis for how what Rauschenbusch said in 1907 still relates to us now.)
Red Letter Christians - Tony Campolo
and...
I just recently picked up the Archaeological Study Bible - it's pretty much amazing and offers archaeological, cultural and historical background throughout. It's pretty interesting stuff and offers a new spin on some of the bible's familiar stories.
That's my two cents for the day...
Monday, June 30, 2008
Food Sacrificed to Idols
I've been reading this book lately called Eat Well: A Food Road Map. It is published by an organization called Culture is Not Optional. It is a pretty good read; the compile a bunch of essays, art, poems and book recommendations that all have to do with how we eat. There are some that have to do with sustainability, others about the way we eat and the biblical basis for how we should, others about eating locally, etc.
Yesterday I was reading one titled "Food Sacrificed to Idols". It was taking a look at the passage in 1 Corinthians where Paul addresses that exact issue, which was raised by the people of Corinth. In this letter we see Paul responding to the questions of the people about whether they should eat meat that has been sacrificed by pagans to their idols in the temple. When I first read this part of Corinthians I thought: If they think eating that meat is that big a deal then why don't they just not eat the meat from the temple? But it is not that easy. The temple was one of the main sources of meat for the city. The temple was the restaurant, the butcher in Corinth. So Paul warns the people not to be a Christian and go into the temple and take part of eating that meat which they know was just sacrificed to pagan idols.
However, Paul does not tell the people of Corinth to become vegetarians. He simply says there are some people that cannot get over the fact that the meat was sacrificed to an idol and that mind set defiles the meat for them. But then he says that there are some where that is not an issue for them, they know that food "does not bring them closer to God, no worse if we do not eat, no better if we do."
Paul doesn't want the folks who get it to influence the others to just go around eating the meat in the temple. He ends the section by saying: "Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to fall."
I think this is a chapter that can be over looked. It is so easy to just look at it and say okay, don't eat meat sacrificed to idols or don't influence those that don't have as much knowledge as you do to sin.
In the Eat Well book there was a lot of focus on Paul talking about knowledge. Paul starts off the chapter by saying: "We know that we all possess knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up." In some ways it is hard to even see how this relates to sacrificing food to idols. Paul just rambles on a little bit about knowledge and love before he goes on to address what the Corinthians were really asking. But it is amazing to see how in those two sentences he sets up the whole passage.
Paul tells us that we are not to lord our knowledge over other people and use that as a way of telling them what to do. In order for us to really help, to really show those who are "weaker" sometimes we have to put aside all the knowledge that we have about something and show them the way through love.
In the book there was an example about a couple and their young son. The son was convinced that there was a boar that lived in his room. Every night the boar would come out and keep the kid from being able to go to sleep. So his parents would come into the kids room and check out the situation until he was able to fall back asleep. Instead of the parents getting up every night and telling the kid that the boar did not exist they would chase him around the house until he left, they would capture him and toss him out the window, and then finally they drew a lifesize picture of it and burned the picture in the backyard getting rid of the boar for good. If the parents had gotten up every night and insisted that the boar was imaginary, or did not exist or tried to rationalize with the child, the boar would have still been a reality to the kid every night.
In this story the parents did not try to hold their knowledge over their son, but instead loved him and gave into his reality in order show him the truth. That is what Paul asks us to do, it may have to do with food here in 1 Corinthians, but can easily be applied to every part of life. We are inpatient and try to use our knowledge to tell them all in one time, thinking they will get it. But knowledge puffs up while love builds up....
Yesterday I was reading one titled "Food Sacrificed to Idols". It was taking a look at the passage in 1 Corinthians where Paul addresses that exact issue, which was raised by the people of Corinth. In this letter we see Paul responding to the questions of the people about whether they should eat meat that has been sacrificed by pagans to their idols in the temple. When I first read this part of Corinthians I thought: If they think eating that meat is that big a deal then why don't they just not eat the meat from the temple? But it is not that easy. The temple was one of the main sources of meat for the city. The temple was the restaurant, the butcher in Corinth. So Paul warns the people not to be a Christian and go into the temple and take part of eating that meat which they know was just sacrificed to pagan idols.
However, Paul does not tell the people of Corinth to become vegetarians. He simply says there are some people that cannot get over the fact that the meat was sacrificed to an idol and that mind set defiles the meat for them. But then he says that there are some where that is not an issue for them, they know that food "does not bring them closer to God, no worse if we do not eat, no better if we do."
Paul doesn't want the folks who get it to influence the others to just go around eating the meat in the temple. He ends the section by saying: "Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to fall."
I think this is a chapter that can be over looked. It is so easy to just look at it and say okay, don't eat meat sacrificed to idols or don't influence those that don't have as much knowledge as you do to sin.
In the Eat Well book there was a lot of focus on Paul talking about knowledge. Paul starts off the chapter by saying: "We know that we all possess knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up." In some ways it is hard to even see how this relates to sacrificing food to idols. Paul just rambles on a little bit about knowledge and love before he goes on to address what the Corinthians were really asking. But it is amazing to see how in those two sentences he sets up the whole passage.
Paul tells us that we are not to lord our knowledge over other people and use that as a way of telling them what to do. In order for us to really help, to really show those who are "weaker" sometimes we have to put aside all the knowledge that we have about something and show them the way through love.
In the book there was an example about a couple and their young son. The son was convinced that there was a boar that lived in his room. Every night the boar would come out and keep the kid from being able to go to sleep. So his parents would come into the kids room and check out the situation until he was able to fall back asleep. Instead of the parents getting up every night and telling the kid that the boar did not exist they would chase him around the house until he left, they would capture him and toss him out the window, and then finally they drew a lifesize picture of it and burned the picture in the backyard getting rid of the boar for good. If the parents had gotten up every night and insisted that the boar was imaginary, or did not exist or tried to rationalize with the child, the boar would have still been a reality to the kid every night.
In this story the parents did not try to hold their knowledge over their son, but instead loved him and gave into his reality in order show him the truth. That is what Paul asks us to do, it may have to do with food here in 1 Corinthians, but can easily be applied to every part of life. We are inpatient and try to use our knowledge to tell them all in one time, thinking they will get it. But knowledge puffs up while love builds up....
Sunday, February 10, 2008
O Little Town of Pheonix
Word...
So about a week ago I got home from my very first mission trip, down south in Louisiana.
You can check out the pics here.
On our way out on Sunday one of the women from church told me to have fun and then said "there's just something about manual labor!" And my reply was that there really is. I love that kind of stuff and it is even better when you get the chance to do it for someone else.
So, we got down after the 20 hour van ride. I layed tile and painted the trim around the house. There was nice weather, but best of all really nice people. We got to spend a bit of time with a family whose house we didn't even work on. They were gracious enough to share a meal with us and then invite us into their home that they are working on rebuilding to try some authentic Gumbo. It was amazing, tons of different things go into that stuff, including what look like huge crab claws. Yummmm!!
I was really amazed at the sense of community that all of these people shared. It was a small town, you had to cross the Mississippi River by ferry to get to the grocery store. Everyone knew everyone else, not only that, they cared about everyone else. While we were working there were people popping up in the house all day long to see how things were going. We heard stories of people getting up at 5:30 in the morning to get a ferry over the river to be able to help the groups that were down there with building the houses.
There are some amazing people and amazing things taking place in a very devastated area. Donald, the husband of the family we spent some time with said that when things are happening that you don't know what God is thinking, what God has planned next. But afterward sometimes you can see what he had up his sleeve. If Katrina hadn't happened there wouldn't be hundreds or thousands of people giving up their comfortable lives to go down and help these people. There wouldn't be people that needed help.
People from all over the country are coming together in this one place and learning about community. I believe that Acts 2 is being carried out in that place everyday. People coming together in fellowship, breaking bread, giving to everyone as they have need, and having everything in common.
I didn't think about that at all going into this whole thing. As I came out of it I want to be like those people down there. People that have lost everything but feel like they have gained so much more. I am hoping to be more aware and intentional of caring for the community that I find myself in.
My salutation says it all
May you always have enough
Peace and love...
So about a week ago I got home from my very first mission trip, down south in Louisiana.
You can check out the pics here.
On our way out on Sunday one of the women from church told me to have fun and then said "there's just something about manual labor!" And my reply was that there really is. I love that kind of stuff and it is even better when you get the chance to do it for someone else.
So, we got down after the 20 hour van ride. I layed tile and painted the trim around the house. There was nice weather, but best of all really nice people. We got to spend a bit of time with a family whose house we didn't even work on. They were gracious enough to share a meal with us and then invite us into their home that they are working on rebuilding to try some authentic Gumbo. It was amazing, tons of different things go into that stuff, including what look like huge crab claws. Yummmm!!
I was really amazed at the sense of community that all of these people shared. It was a small town, you had to cross the Mississippi River by ferry to get to the grocery store. Everyone knew everyone else, not only that, they cared about everyone else. While we were working there were people popping up in the house all day long to see how things were going. We heard stories of people getting up at 5:30 in the morning to get a ferry over the river to be able to help the groups that were down there with building the houses.
There are some amazing people and amazing things taking place in a very devastated area. Donald, the husband of the family we spent some time with said that when things are happening that you don't know what God is thinking, what God has planned next. But afterward sometimes you can see what he had up his sleeve. If Katrina hadn't happened there wouldn't be hundreds or thousands of people giving up their comfortable lives to go down and help these people. There wouldn't be people that needed help.
People from all over the country are coming together in this one place and learning about community. I believe that Acts 2 is being carried out in that place everyday. People coming together in fellowship, breaking bread, giving to everyone as they have need, and having everything in common.
I didn't think about that at all going into this whole thing. As I came out of it I want to be like those people down there. People that have lost everything but feel like they have gained so much more. I am hoping to be more aware and intentional of caring for the community that I find myself in.
My salutation says it all
May you always have enough
Peace and love...
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