Joe White sent this to me. It took me a few seconds to get over the representative costumes, but if that is something that bugs you too, give it time. All of the comments talk about sharing with other Christians, but I wonder why we don't share it with those who are unaware of who Jesus truly is and what he truly has done?
The first 1:20 I have had brief encounters and glimpses.
From there to 3:45 has probably been most of my life growing up. (Yes, pretty much all of it.)
From there to about 4:30 has been most of my experience trying to follow Christ.
From there to the end of the video has probably been the last year of my life, though the 'dusting off' part has taken a lot longer.
It's on YouTube as well.
Let me know what you think.
-mike
Friday, September 07, 2007
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
Thursday, July 19, 2007
One Punk Under God
I'm the type of person who likes to have my ideas challenged and stretched so when One Punk Under God showed up from Netflix I was hope for some good material.
I was not disappointed, but while I was secretly hoping for some jabs to be taken at the mainstream church, what I got was an emotional, humbling, and ultimately hopeful experience.
I don't want to write a synopsis, but rather whet your appetite to watch this series from the Sundance Channel.
For those of you who don't know who Jay Bakker is, he is the son of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker. After the collapse of their ministry, he became jaded with the church, got a bunch of tattoos, hung out in the punk rock scene, and ultimately came back to God and started Revolution in Atlanta.
The series is about his move to NYC and his life in general. The first episode doesn't seem all that great, just a lot of background info, until the last 5 minutes and you are in it for the whole series.
A couple of quotes:
Jerry Falwell clip talking to Jay's dad in front of the world. This is one of the guys Jim Bakker was hoping would restore him:
"...And Jim I must tell you that I would be doing a disservice to God. As much as I love you and care for you and will pray for you. I would be doing a disservice to God and to the church at large to allow you to come back here now or ever."
Nice, huh? So much for restoration. Gotta love the Radical Wing nut Religious Right.
These quotes are from Jay:
Speaking of becoming pro-gay marriage:
"Because if we serve a real God and the Holy Spirit is real...if...if you think its a sin then don't you believe the Holy Spirit will convict the person?"
The implications of that statement reverberated deeply in me. While I'm not necessarily pro-gay marriage, I'm definitely not anti-gay person which seems to be how the mainstream church has lined up.
And finally speaking of his dad and his parents:
"...The point is how do we handle it when people make mistakes. you know, I mean we can't follow human beings. I think that's the problem people made with my parents. You know I thought it was about Jesus and what Jesus did; not about what we do and I thought that, you know, we're gonna make mistakes but thank God we have Jesus."
Amen, I say. The 'head pastor' model is such a skewed idea from the gospel. It only sets people up to be unnecessarily burdened, and other to lose site of following Jesus.
Peace and love in His name!
MR
Seen it? Let me know what you thought.
I was not disappointed, but while I was secretly hoping for some jabs to be taken at the mainstream church, what I got was an emotional, humbling, and ultimately hopeful experience.
I don't want to write a synopsis, but rather whet your appetite to watch this series from the Sundance Channel.
For those of you who don't know who Jay Bakker is, he is the son of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker. After the collapse of their ministry, he became jaded with the church, got a bunch of tattoos, hung out in the punk rock scene, and ultimately came back to God and started Revolution in Atlanta.
The series is about his move to NYC and his life in general. The first episode doesn't seem all that great, just a lot of background info, until the last 5 minutes and you are in it for the whole series.
A couple of quotes:
Jerry Falwell clip talking to Jay's dad in front of the world. This is one of the guys Jim Bakker was hoping would restore him:
"...And Jim I must tell you that I would be doing a disservice to God. As much as I love you and care for you and will pray for you. I would be doing a disservice to God and to the church at large to allow you to come back here now or ever."
Nice, huh? So much for restoration. Gotta love the Radical Wing nut Religious Right.
These quotes are from Jay:
Speaking of becoming pro-gay marriage:
"Because if we serve a real God and the Holy Spirit is real...if...if you think its a sin then don't you believe the Holy Spirit will convict the person?"
The implications of that statement reverberated deeply in me. While I'm not necessarily pro-gay marriage, I'm definitely not anti-gay person which seems to be how the mainstream church has lined up.
And finally speaking of his dad and his parents:
"...The point is how do we handle it when people make mistakes. you know, I mean we can't follow human beings. I think that's the problem people made with my parents. You know I thought it was about Jesus and what Jesus did; not about what we do and I thought that, you know, we're gonna make mistakes but thank God we have Jesus."
Amen, I say. The 'head pastor' model is such a skewed idea from the gospel. It only sets people up to be unnecessarily burdened, and other to lose site of following Jesus.
Peace and love in His name!
MR
Seen it? Let me know what you thought.
Monday, June 11, 2007
So where do you fit in?
A friend of mine sent me this quiz. I'm not sure what to think about the results...Does this mean I need to bleach my hair to look like Rob Bell's?
You scored as Emergent/Postmodern, You are Emergent/Postmodern in your theology. You feel alienated from older forms of church, you don't think they connect to modern culture very well. No one knows the whole truth about God, and we have much to learn from each other, and so learning takes place in dialogue. Evangelism should take place in relationships rather than through crusades and altar-calls. People are interested in spirituality and want to ask questions, so the church should help them to do this.
What's your theological worldview?
created with QuizFarm.com
You scored as Emergent/Postmodern, You are Emergent/Postmodern in your theology. You feel alienated from older forms of church, you don't think they connect to modern culture very well. No one knows the whole truth about God, and we have much to learn from each other, and so learning takes place in dialogue. Evangelism should take place in relationships rather than through crusades and altar-calls. People are interested in spirituality and want to ask questions, so the church should help them to do this.
Emergent/Postmodern | 86% | ||
Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan | 64% | ||
Classical Liberal | 61% | ||
Modern Liberal | 57% | ||
Neo orthodox | 39% | ||
Charismatic/Pentecostal | 29% | ||
Roman Catholic | 21% | ||
Reformed Evangelical | 18% | ||
Fundamentalist | 11% |
What's your theological worldview?
created with QuizFarm.com
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
What do we do now?
So last night I watched Garden State and for some reason the last couple of scenes really stuck out. Zach Braff and Natalie Portman are sitting in the airport waiting on Braff’s character’s flight. Portman is trying to convince him not to go.
Andrew: “This isn’t…This isn’t a conversation about this being over. It’s…It’s… I’m not like putting a period at the end of this you know. I’m puttin’ like an ellipsis on it…”
So he finally gets on the plane. Cut to Portman crying in a telephone booth in the airport.
Samantha, incredulously: “What are you doing here?”
Andrew, out of breath: “Look. You remember that idea I had about working stuff out on my own and then finding you once I figured stuff out?”
Samantha: “The ellipsis?”
Andrew: “Yeah. The ellipsis. It’s Dumb. It’s dumb. It’s an awful idea. And I’m not gonna do it, okay? Cause like you said, this is it. This is life…and I’m in love with you Samantha. I think that’s the only thing I’ve ever been really sure of in my life. I’m really messed up now, and I got a whole lot of stuff I gotta work out. But I don’t wanna waste any more of my life without you in it, okay?”
Samantha: “Yeah.”
Andrew, with growing excitement: “And I think I can do this! I mean, I want to. We have to, right?”
Samantha, very happy: “Yeah!” (She starts laughing nervously.)
Andrew: “Right?” (He starts laughing too, though a little more relieved.)
Samantha: “Yes!”
They hug.
Andrew: “So what do we do?”
She starts to shake her head.
Andrew, with a bit of desperation: “What do we do?”
They kiss, the camera pulls back and then fade to black.
There are few couples we know who have slowly extricated themselves from the mainstream church. We used to get together pretty regularly, but we all had either crazy schedules or events going on in our lives and so we only get together sporadically, and rarely all at one time. So earlier in the evening we had one of the couples over for dinner and Ryan helped me put in a ceiling fan. We were sitting around talking after working and dinner and I felt the need to steer the conversation toward God. I always feel like there should be some sort of momentous dialog or prayer or something every time we get together.
I get various pieces of mail addressed to me from my time in the church. I got a glossy flyer for some sort of upcoming conference for teen girls and we started talking about it. I mentioned Steve Sensenig’s post about the music industry and some of the comments about intertwining money and business with things of God. It was obvious who the target demographic was and I said I understood what they were trying to accomplish, but it seemed so far removed from real life. Conferences like this create this false impression of living life only on the mountain tops. Once these kids get back into the real world all they start looking for is the 'peaks', thinking the 'valleys' mean they are doing something wrong.
Ryan mentioned how church was like that and he was tired of trying to seek the next 'high' in his walk with God. Annie said she has never been this guilt-free since she has stopped attending the I.C. (Institutional Church). They talked about learning about real life and maturing and growing up.
The last lines of the movie really resonated with me concerning church and seeking God. When all of the busy work of the I.C. is taken away, we start to ask, "So what do we do? What do we do?"
We start to see how immature our faith and walk really are and we start to grow up and trust in God. Or we don't.
Any thoughts?
Andrew: “This isn’t…This isn’t a conversation about this being over. It’s…It’s… I’m not like putting a period at the end of this you know. I’m puttin’ like an ellipsis on it…”
So he finally gets on the plane. Cut to Portman crying in a telephone booth in the airport.
Samantha, incredulously: “What are you doing here?”
Andrew, out of breath: “Look. You remember that idea I had about working stuff out on my own and then finding you once I figured stuff out?”
Samantha: “The ellipsis?”
Andrew: “Yeah. The ellipsis. It’s Dumb. It’s dumb. It’s an awful idea. And I’m not gonna do it, okay? Cause like you said, this is it. This is life…and I’m in love with you Samantha. I think that’s the only thing I’ve ever been really sure of in my life. I’m really messed up now, and I got a whole lot of stuff I gotta work out. But I don’t wanna waste any more of my life without you in it, okay?”
Samantha: “Yeah.”
Andrew, with growing excitement: “And I think I can do this! I mean, I want to. We have to, right?”
Samantha, very happy: “Yeah!” (She starts laughing nervously.)
Andrew: “Right?” (He starts laughing too, though a little more relieved.)
Samantha: “Yes!”
They hug.
Andrew: “So what do we do?”
She starts to shake her head.
Andrew, with a bit of desperation: “What do we do?”
They kiss, the camera pulls back and then fade to black.
There are few couples we know who have slowly extricated themselves from the mainstream church. We used to get together pretty regularly, but we all had either crazy schedules or events going on in our lives and so we only get together sporadically, and rarely all at one time. So earlier in the evening we had one of the couples over for dinner and Ryan helped me put in a ceiling fan. We were sitting around talking after working and dinner and I felt the need to steer the conversation toward God. I always feel like there should be some sort of momentous dialog or prayer or something every time we get together.
I get various pieces of mail addressed to me from my time in the church. I got a glossy flyer for some sort of upcoming conference for teen girls and we started talking about it. I mentioned Steve Sensenig’s post about the music industry and some of the comments about intertwining money and business with things of God. It was obvious who the target demographic was and I said I understood what they were trying to accomplish, but it seemed so far removed from real life. Conferences like this create this false impression of living life only on the mountain tops. Once these kids get back into the real world all they start looking for is the 'peaks', thinking the 'valleys' mean they are doing something wrong.
Ryan mentioned how church was like that and he was tired of trying to seek the next 'high' in his walk with God. Annie said she has never been this guilt-free since she has stopped attending the I.C. (Institutional Church). They talked about learning about real life and maturing and growing up.
The last lines of the movie really resonated with me concerning church and seeking God. When all of the busy work of the I.C. is taken away, we start to ask, "So what do we do? What do we do?"
We start to see how immature our faith and walk really are and we start to grow up and trust in God. Or we don't.
Any thoughts?
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