Recent PostsBeing both a tech geek and one who is growing in his appreciation of classical works of art, this photoshop contest on Gizmodo was just brilliant. There are some brilliant works that people did.
Here’s my favorites
By Rich Lim (posted on front page of above link)
Ok – this might be (ok likely is) a bit of a reach, but I saw some parallels between the sad demise of Facebook’s Scrabulous app today and the way that we too often try to do church.
A bit of history
- Scrabulous created on Facebook and quickly becomes one of the most popular (and addicting) facebook apps
- Hasbro, etc follow the path of the RIAA, MPAA, etc and get uber-concerned about their intellectual property and Scrabulous’ popularity on facebook.
- Apparently, Hasbro tried to negotiate with the makers of Scrabulous and make a deal and they were asking for too much $$$.
- Eventually, Hasbro and EA make their own Scrabble app on Facebook and Scrabulous dies on facebook (today).
- New scrabble app doesn’t work on facebook.
Ok – very little of that has to do with the topic of the post, but the history is important. Anyway, what struck me was fact that, from all the reviews, the new Hasbro/EA Scrabble app is way over the top with animations, graphics, and (from what I have read on one review) no way to really chat with your opponent(s). This new app misses the very thing that was so great about the original facebook app.
Scrabulous wasn’t pretty – it was really basic. No fancy animations, no bells and whistles, etc. Just “scrabble”, a chat window, and a great way to connect with other people. So, Hasbro comes along and misses the point entirely as they create something that misses the point – people played Scrabulous to connect with one another. While it was great to play a 102 point word (as was recently done by my friend Will as he played QUARTET to start the game), it was even better to find a way to connect with people in the midst of life around us.
Don’t we do that too much as the church? We see something great taking place somewhere else and we try to copy it in our context, only to miss 1) the reason that it worked in that place and at that time and 2) our creation of this new thing focuses on the wrong things. I get things every day in the mail at the church about the latest church growth thing – whether its a conference that will “Revolutionize my ministry”, “increase our membership”, or “fill the congregation with praying small groups” – and I have to pray and think instead of about the real needs in the context where I am, celebrate the work that is taking place in these other areas, and maybe draw on them to learn and grow, but not to copy.
On a slightly sarcastic note about this too – the new Scrabble app has totally crashed too. It doesn’t even work on the day of all days that it should work – when people would be most likely to hop over to it when Scrabulous is no more. We have that tendency in the church as well.
You might read the above as a slam on the Christian church and its really not. Its a challenge to me about how the church needs to be something new in this day and age. As a pastor of a Reformed Tradition congregation, we hold to the statement that we are a church “once reformed, always reforming according to the Word of God and the call of the Spirit.” It means that we need to be willing to look at the world around us, learn the needs, learn the language of the “world” around us, and respond with ministry, compassion, grace, and hope in ways that people can hear, understand, and respond themselves. It means that we don’t need to copy the Scrabulous-es of the world, but instead in our own contexts, create our own and allow people to connect with one another and connect in vital, real, (and fun) ways.
Well, Steve Jobs…you have done it to me again. I have been eyeing an ipod touch for a while now (we can’t get AT&T service where I live, so no iphone for me), but already having a decent ipod and a decent PDA got me by. Well, this week I was offered one that was brand new, but was being sold by a friend who also had an iphone. This friend has some amazing connections in the Christian music industry and he said that he was sold the two things super-cheap. Once he unlocked the iphone and jailbroke it for 3rd party apps, he was happy to sell the touch at a great price (for a buyer).
I kept telling myself…you are fine with what you have…don’t even consider it.
Well, I took it home last night to play around with it. And tonight, it is sitting next to my keyboard syncing up about 10 GB worth of music, video, and photos. Its already synced up my outlook info on my laptop. The nano has already been sold and the TX is going on ebay in a little bit.
I guess I have to start considering myself a fanboy at this point with iPods. Not with Macs, but just with iPods. Of course, it doesn’t help that I have a ton of AAC protected music in my itunes library that can’t play nice with any other devices.
Well, since finishing up my thesis (woot!), I have begun to fall in love again with the printed word. While I read over 150 books and other forms of “literature” as sources for my thesis, it is very different to read for a thesis than it is to read for “choice.” So, in the several weeks since I submitted my thesis, I have plowed my way through four very different books.
Childhood’s End & Rendezvous with Rama | Sex God | The Irresistible Revolution
SciFi Novels
I started with some good old science fiction in recognition of the recent death of Arthur C Clarke. I had read several of his books previously, but not Childhood’s End and Rendezvous with Rama. Rama was an interesting and fun read, but it was Childhood’s End that really struck me. What a stark contrast of a story focusing on aliens visiting earth of a book written several decades ago compared to similar films of the last twenty years. I remember watching V on back in the late 80s and the story of how the aliens came to earth to harvest people for food, then movies like Independence Day furthered the idea that aliens would only come to destroy us or eat us. Anyway, Childhood’s End focuses on others coming to our world to guide us into a new way of being. In many ways, this book isn’t entirely different from the ultimate focus of 2001 – that humans one day will take a further evolutionary step into something beyond what we are today. Anyway, a fascinating read.
Sex God
Moving onto an entirely different topic, I read Rob Bell’s book Sex God: Exploring the Endless Connections Between Sexuality and Spirituality. I had previously read Bell’s Velvet Elvis and was struck by the new perspective that he brought to Christianity and to its connection to culture today. I had Sex God on my shelf for a while and finally got to reading it. I have to admit that the last third of the book seemed to start to drag – it seemed repetitive and almost like Bell was trying to fill pages. That being said, I don’t think it truly takes away from the perspective the book offers. Ultimately, the book is a solid (although not exceptional) exploration of how deeply linked our sexuality and our spirituality truly are. In a religious climate that continues to try to separate the two or make people deny sexuality (of any form) because of spirituality, Bell focuses on how we truly do experience God through our sexuality. It is important to note that he doesn’t limit sexuality in his definition to the act of sex itself, but instead widens it (appropriately) to focus on the quality of relationships with others – both within and without a marriage. He notes in several places that God did create humans as sexual creatures and as we are created in God’s image, our sexuality is there as part of God’s image within us.
I was also deeply appreciative of the fact that he, unlike most evangelicals (although I am not sure Bell would want to be called an Evangelical), uses the appropriate interpretation of Ephesians 5 when talking about the power relationship between husband and wife. Many evangelicals want to separate the passage after the statement of “submit yourselves to one another out of reverance for Christ” as the NIV (New International Version of the Bible) does. What is significant is that that verse should be paired with what follows (wives submit to your husbands, etc) and not separated. The Greek (original language of the letter to the Ephesians) doesn’t separate them – why should modern translators? Anyway, Bell focuses in one chapter on the mutual submission that couples should have to one another in their marriage relationship. And ultimately, he brings it to the Christian community – a call for us to submit to one another out of reverance for Christ.
The book is a very different style to read. If you are expecting long, detailed theological arguments on specific subjects quoting great historical theologians, you might get rather frustrated with his writing. He writes much as he speaks and I believe he writes this way to encourage this as the beginning of dialogues on this topic, rather than this book being the authority readers should just fall in line with.
While the book does have some flaws, I would seriously consider using this book as a discussion starter in small groups focusing on the topic of sexuality and I would also strongly consider its use in a youth group or within a premarital counseling relationship when talking about the issues of power, communication, and sexuality within a relationship.
The Irresistible Revolution
This is a book that has been sitting on my shelf for far too long. I knew what it was about through two sources – my colleague Jeff and the church he serves and through an episode of Speaking of Faith. Shane Claiborne is a participant in what observers have called a “new monasticism” – people who truly have given up what they have and have begun living together in faith-based communities trying to live our their faith in new, challenging, and prophetic ways. Unlike the traditional concept of monasticism, this form is centered within cities (such as inner-city Philadelphia where The Simple Way [Claiborne's community] lives) and focuses on living out their faith for the benefit of the community around them. The subtitle of the book is “living as an ordinary radical.”
I think the book sat on my shelf for so long because I knew (both consciously and unconsciously) that it would challenge me in incredible ways. When I heard the SoF episode while driving home from Dubuque last summer, at one point I had to pull over because I was just so deeply convicted by what I heard. The perspective that he brings really moves out of the liberal/conservative/evangelical/mainline /red/blue/republican/democrat dividing that we are so apt to do today. Similar to how McLaren titles his book, A Generous Orthodoxy, Claiborne cannot be painted into a corner as he is at the same time a strong evangelical who is absolutely anti war (of any kind), social activist, faithful disciple, etc etc etc.
There was much in the book that resonated with me – his perseptive on the Iraq War specifically. He traveled to Iraq shortly before the war started and he speaks of how he experienced being on “the other side” as he worshiped with communities in Baghdad as the bombs began to fall. A priest prayed that they might love their enemies and Claiborne realized that they were speaking of those who were dropping the bombs on their country. He journals about his experience here.
While there was a great deal else in the book that affirmed where I am spiritually, politically, etc, his words challenged me greatly about how these areas of my life must be far more integrated than they often are. Often, it is too easy to separate the political from the spiritual from the material. They are all deeply and intricately connected and all must be informed by the rule of love. I think Claiborne would like to be described as a “radical lover” – not in the contemporary use of the word “lover” – but instead as one who seeks to radically love as Jesus loved (and loves still today). He has a marvelous quote that highlights this when he speaks of his dream of a faith community:
…a community of people who have falls desperately in love with God and with suffering people, and who allow those relationships to disturb and transform them.
In many ways, the message that Claiborne offers challenges me on the same level as the sermon I linked to a few days ago. In Rev. Moss’ message, he notes at one point that the preacher’s role is to “keep catastrophe before the people” essentially to never let people get so comfortable that they forget (or choose to ignore) the realities of the world around them – both right next door and thousands of miles away.
There are so many levels that Irresistible Revolution struck me on that its impossible to put into words. It is worth a read, however, knowing that it will challenge, encourage, and disturb you.
The next books? Through a Screen Darkly by Jeffrey Overstreet and a return to my dearly loved A Prayer for Owen Meany
One of the beauties of the Internet is that we can be a part of faith communities from afar. We can participate in worship from a distance away. Obviously, it is not the same as being a part of the community in person, but we can get a taste. A few days ago, I blogged about Shane Hipps’ sermon at Mars Hill in Grand Rapids, MI. Today, I must share about another sermon I heard yesterday.
My friend Erin passed along an email from Louisville Seminary about their Greenhoe Lectures from early March. One of the messages was shared by Otis Moss III, the new senior pastor of Trinity UCC in Chicago. The message was entitled “Preaching in a Post-Modern World.” It is a message largely directed to church leaders, but there is a solid message in there for anyone seeking to connect with the larger culture in how God is at work.
I was listening to it in my car throughout the day yesterday and there was one point where I literally had to stop the car, grab pen and paper and write down a segment from the message. He was speaking about how he was initially confronted several years ago with how people were getting caught up in their denominational heritage instead of looking forward to what God was doing…This is at about the 31 minute mark…
…people used such denominational language and I wasn’t used to denominational language…You know we’re UCC or Presbyterian and all these people making such fundamental distinctions. I understand the history piece. But my challenge was this, especially as a person of African descent. My challenge is this – you keep trying to say that it is, that we are UCC, we are Presbyterian, but the fundamental question is “What is our calling?” Not necessarily the denominational history, which is important, but the question is “What is God’s activity?” And if you do not merge God’s activity with your denominational history, then you will end up having doctrine that is faithful but is without love. And whenever you have doctrine that is faithful but without love, it then becomes an ideology that becomes destructive to people that do not fit your framework. And so this is what has happened in many ways. We have become so focused on our history not looking at our calling and the activity of God that we then become exclusive in how God can function.
Ultimately, his point is about what he calls the prophetic contradiction. The prophetic contradiction is how the preacher speaks God’s Word in a world where, on the surface, it doesn’t seem to fit. The prophetic contradiction challenges people about a God of love in the midst of a world of pain.
The sermon is worth a listen, especially any preacher types…Its about 51 minutes long, but it feels like about 10.
(click image for full-view of it b/c of the fixed margins of the wordpress theme)
I have been reading xkcd for a while via my newsreader and just found this one today really funny. For those not familiar with XKCD, it defines itself as a “A webcomic of romance,
sarcasm, math, and language.” In other words, there are times that someone needs to google some of the more geeky terms and the romance aspect is a bit questionable. But regardless, it is worth putting in your newsfeed reader…
Here’s their feed link
And one more comic for good measure (in honor of Arthur C Clarke’s passing a few weeks ago and a beautiful shout-out to Valve’s amazing game, Portal)
