Category: church
06/04/08
Plain View #87 - April 30, 2008
Nim's Island
TV
Pretty Woman
Day of Silence
Everything Must Change
Gay Bishop
Hapkido
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04/18/08
Plain View #85 - April 11, 2008
Sickness
Marriage Conference
The Sheraton
Fire!
Toilet Papering
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04/13/08
09:54:13 am, Categories: church I originally posted this at Adrian Christian Church.
I'm finishing up a book called The New Christians: Dispatches from the Emergent Frontier by Tony Jones. It's a history and description of the emerging church movement, a movement that's been around for about 10 years. I find myself drawn to the emerging church and its attempt to bring Christ to the postmodern world.
Scattered throughout the book are a number of "dispatches," brief statements that summarize how "emergents" see the world and the church's place in it. I thought it would be fun to address each of these dispatches, give my take on it, and how I see it fitting or not fitting with our situation at ACC.
I would love for people to comment or ask questions about each of these posts. I'm not sure how often they will appear, every week or two hopefully. Also, if anyone is interested in reading this book, let me know and I'll give you my copy when I'm finished.
"Dispatch 1: Emergents find little importance in the discrete differences between the various flavors of Christianity. Instead, they practice a generous orthodoxy that appreciates the contributions of all Christian movements."
A little of my background. I was raised in the Methodist church. I was active in the Sunday school, choir and United Methodist Youth Fellowship. One summer my folks packed 9 or 10 of us youth in the Suburban and drove us to Kentucky for a mission trip. I still get a kick out of seeing students in their UMYF teeshirts as it takes me back to those good old days. In the mean time I was also very active in Abilene's Campus Life group. During my college years I mostly went to Baptist churches, primarily because they started their services later than most. I could usually get myself up and around for a service that started at 10:30. I didn't attend anywhere regularly. I don't remember every attending Sunday school in college, and I never attached myself to any denomination during those years. I did do some worship with Ichthus and Bible study with the Navigators. And there was a summer where I lived and attended worship with a family who were Pentecostals at the time. After K-State my church attendance was even more hit and miss, mostly miss. When MaryEllen and I got married, we spent a long time church hunting. Finally we tried an Episcopal church in Norfolk, Virginia, mostly because it was just down the street from where we lived at the time. It turned out that it was perfect for us. It did as much to bring together two newly married spiritual wanderers as I believe any church could have. We loved both the liturgy and the freedom to ask hard questions about faith that the episcopal community offered. We remained episcopal even after returning to the Midwest. It was just a few years ago, for reasons that had nothing to do with beliefs about baptism, communion, or apostolic succession, that we came to ACC. We came here, and stayed, because of the people.
So Dispatch #1 describes me pretty well. I love ACC. We rock on Sunday morning. We demonstrate the idea of the church family better than any body I've been a part of. And I still love to attend episcopal services. I love the liturgy, the quiet, the corporal prayer of confession, and taking communion from a common cup. I loved hearing Lance Loughridge preach on Good Friday a couple years ago at the Methodist church. It was energetic, and enlivening and poetic, like the preaching of the black church we visited in Virginia years ago. I love the devotion to the scripture that I see in the discussions with my Baptist students. I love the Eastern orthodoxy's embrace of God's mystery, and the history that we all share in the Catholic church.
In my experience, members of ACC are pretty cool in regards other denominations. I've gotten the occasional funny look when I've mentioned my enthusiasm for various flavors of Christianity. And when I once read a passage from the Apocrypha during Sunday school, the silence and the facial expressions around the table were what I would imagine I would get if I brought out a dirty diaper and plopped it down in front of me. But generally when I bring ideas and prayers and traditions from other stripes of Christianity, they are met with enthusiastic interest. I have also heard people passionately share stories of discussing the gospel with coworkers. Some of these coworkers were not religious at all, and some held beliefs that are quite different from traditional Christianity. It it clear in the tellings that these coworkers were loved and respected and often considered brothers in Christ or at least sincere fellow travelers, fellow seekers on the path of life. Before we take communion, we are usually reminded, mostly for any visitors attending I think, that ACC practices open communion. That probably means different things to different people, but I like that I've never heard it defined at ACC. I like the idea that the communion table is Christ's table, not ours. And we are not going to turn away any who Christ would welcome.
04/11/08
Plain View #84 - March 24, 2008
Guitar Hero
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03/11/08
Plain View #82 - February 21, 2008
snow day
bread machine
Jojo's visit
religion
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08/23/07
Plain View #76 - August 4, 2007
Bufe
Clerks II
Mulholland Drive
Bridge collapse - funny story
Political take on the above - corporations are the answer
Ron Paul for Pres.
Beatitudes
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08/04/07
Plain View #75 - July 25, 2007
Bufe
Minneapolis part duex
Vietnam Culture Camp
Sun Yung Shin
Tammy & Rules vs. Love
Jostens
VBS
Hapkido Testing
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07/19/07
Plain View #73 - July 1, 2007
I'm not sure what happened to the previous episode. It seems to be gone. I found one episodes with a few minutes of dead air that was labeled 72 but seems to be a messed up version of 73. I present a cleaned up version of 73 here, but frankly, I don't have time to figure all this out. I'll keep my eye out for it. If anyone downloaded #72 and the show actually matches the notes. I'd like to have a copy of that file. Thanks.
summer school - OVA!
visit from Maly
our new comedy holiday
Mare's epiphany
Will's 102 situps
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07/01/07
Plain View #72 - June 22, 2007 - This show is missing in action. If anyone one has a copy, please send it my way. Thanks.
Bufe
summer school
Hapkido demonstration
The Beatitudes (not our movie)
The triplets
Adult Adoptee List
Maly
New beer
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04/05/07
Plain View #65 - March 28, 2007
Bufe
2 year anniversary!
Dance Mix
TV
Emergency Room
Grocery Test #1, #2, #3
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03/23/07
Plain View #64 - March 14, 2007
Bufe
Lent
Bloody Cats
Springfield and Easy's
Edukators redux (women in the ministry)
Oscars
Tumblr
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12/20/06
Plain View #58 - December 13, 2006
Straight Story
Superman and the Burning Statue of Liberty
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09/26/06
Plain View #53 - 9/20/06
Kids (between 1 and 2, music to my ears, hapkido)
Note to self - build a treadmill (can you believe I couldn't find a link for this?)
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08/04/06
Plain View #45 - 8/2/06
Dick Cheney (it's a joke!)
Virginia DMV - they don't deserve a link
Superman Theme from very cool Superman Page
Ben's Sermon in it's entirety at Adrian Christian Church
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04/18/06
Burning Car (not the same story, but almost as good)
Ramblin' Educat inspired rant
03/11/06
01/14/06
10:25:55 am, Categories: church The Adrian Christian Church web page is back in action. With Danny's help I have learned enough to make occasional updates. Check it out. I'd like to get some action going in the forums. Of course discussion among Christians too often seems to lead to bickering and nastiness. Anyway, check it out. And leave any feedback as to what you think the purpose of this webpage should be, or what the purpose of any church webpage should be.
Woody Allen's Melinda & Melinda
Brokeback Mountain and holy theater owner
Props to PBS (Reagan and C.S. Lewis)
Death Penalty Challenge is over
Judgy Students
01/10/06
08:23:34 pm, Categories: church I did the communion message on Chirstmas Sunday. I thought it was pretty good so I'm sharing it here.
Midnight mass finished up 22 hours ago in Vietnam. Throughout the Middle-East and Africa, Christian families are together, recounting the day's events, and watching the sun go down on the holiest day of the year. In England, Christmas dinner is over, and the great English/American tradition - the Christmas nap - is taking place. Here in Adrian, my neighbors are right now frying their 4th turkey--you can bet the traditional nap is only a few hours away. And in Hawaii they will sleep a while longer before the greetings of "Mele Kalikimaka" are heard. For the last 27 hours (and for the next 21), Christians around the world celebrate the birth of Christ.
The point in history when God came physically to earth -- as a homeless little baby in the middle of nowhere.
The first ones to hear about this were the shepherds. Why the shepherds?
Well, clearly shepherds are some of God's favorite people - Moses and David, for example, put in their time with the flocks. And Jesus liked to call himself the good shepherd. Shepherds are also just the kind of poor & dispossessed people that our God brings to glory. But mostly, I think, that night, the shepherds heard first for another reason.
The bible says they were out tending their sheep. Out working. And God the father looks down at his only begotten son -- a brand new baby, there in the feed trough, wrapped-up in rags. And he says, "Wow! I have to tell somebody about this! Who's up?" Who's up in the middle of the night? Shepherds. My guess is that if Jesus was born today, it would be the people working, and hanging out all night, at truck stops, diners, bars and street corners, who would first be told of the miraculous birth.
The news, thank God, trickled down to the respectable folk. The good news. That God is here with us. He loves us. He forgives us. He wants us to be with him.
So the celebration of God's son, the baby, bringing the good news to the world, continues. We have several hours left today. And if we want, we can continue to celebrate tomorrow, too.
Jesus didn't give us any guidelines for celebrating his birth. So, for the last couple thousand years, Christians have come up with an amazing variety of ways to mark the arrival of the little baby and the good news.
But he did set up the celebration that we're about to take part in.
I'll finish up with some of Paul's words from I Corinthians, and a prayer by Nathan Nettleton:
For this is what the Lord himself said, and I pass it on to you just as I received it. On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me." In the same way, he took the cup of wine after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant between God and you, sealed by the shedding of my blood. Do this in remembrance of me as often as you drink it." For every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are announcing the Lord's death until he comes again.
So
With the woman who gave him birth,
with the man who took him on his shoulders,
with the shepherds who found him in a feed trough,
with the magi who knew of him from the silent stars,
with the aged prophets who saw in him the redemption of the world,
with the angels and archangels who envelop us,
with all the saints before us and beside us,
with brothers and sisters, east and west, north and south,
And with our loved ones, separate from us now,
who yet, in this mystery are close to us,
We celebrate Christ's birth, we proclaim his death and resurrection, and we await his return in glory.
Amen.
01/06/06
Still waiting on challenge response
Information overload
Holiday happenings
Movie list
Movie reviews
01/01/06
10:56:03 pm, Categories: church Each week I'll try to link to a site that's discussing the weekly lectionary. I'll try to mix it up on occasion. This week you can find your scriptures and hopefully some discussion at Kairos CoMotion Lectionary Dialogue. I'm not very hopefull that any discussion will appear hear. But I have been asked to keep people up on what we're reading and discussion in sunday school each week.
12/14/05
If I Ran the Zoo
Memories of Murder
Death Penalty and Christians -- The Challenge
12/04/05
After much technical difficulty, a week's worth to be exact. We finally have the next show down. The stupid recorded kept stopping after 4 minutes and 15 seconds. And the stupid podcasters kept talking without checking to see if it was going to screw up again, and again, and again.
No More Tag, NBC, Yellow Belts, Onward Christian Soldiers
11/12/05
Matt: Netflix strike one, Run Lola Run, Will's tooth and the tooth fairy.
Mare: Politics, religion, sex, racism and World War II.
10/29/05
05:38:23 pm, Categories: church I hate for Swick to not get her bible reading done, and since she's not coming to Sunday school, and no one's up for a discussion of the Lectionary here, I'm putting up this link.
Here's Kairos Comotion Lectionary Dialogue, where you'll find, and can participate in discussion of the Lectionary.
I've added it to my bloglines, although I don't keep up with my blogs too much lately.
:: Next >>
Matt's Media
Crash (Widescreen Edition) by Neal Stephenson
What Saint Paul Really Said: Was Paul of Tarsus the Real Founder of Christianity? by N. T. Wright
Angels & Demons by Dan Brown
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