Author: mike

In preparation for a confirmation class I’m teaching, I’ve been skimming through Will Willmon’s book United Methodist Beliefs: A Brief Introduction. I was struck by this great passage in the introduction:

I’ve had it with people who understand computer programming, French cooking, or molecular biology but assume that they can think like a Christian on the basis of simple, sappy truisms they picked up while flipping channels on their TV. The Gospels depict Jesus as calling people to grow, not turn off their brains and settle into a life forever fixed at age seven.

What passes for atheism (“There is no God”) or agnosticism (“I don’t know whether or not there is a God”) is sometimes simple cerebral sloth, intellectual sluggishness. Some people act as if their disbelief is an intellectual achievement when in reality it’s a failure to think deeply about the Good News of Jesus Christ. The modern world is officially agnostic, contending that no truth is greater than any other truth, that it’s fine to be a believer as long as you promise your believing will never be more than a personal preference without political or economic implications. “I don’t believe” sometimes means that disbelievers lack the intellectual chutzpa to think outside the bod that the modern world has forced on them. We are a culture that loves shortcuts, slogans, facile definitions, and quick, easy, instant answers. One of John Wesley’s favorite biblical texts was, “Work our your own faith with fear and trembling” (Phil 2:12). Even though our salvation in Jesus Christ is free, it is not cheap. Jesus demands a lifetime of willingness to keep at the intellectual journey. (pgs. xv-xvi)

For the past couple years I’ve thought about one of those big “best of” lists that could recommend all these amazing books, albums, etc., but I never feel like I read enough or have enough of a critical ear to make a fair judgement/recommendation to anyone who actually reads this thing. I’ve finally decided to give it a shot, with the disclaimer that this is just what came across my radar this year, with money and free time limiting my scope.

On the music side here’s stuff released in 2010 that I gave a good listen to (listing isn’t based on ranking):

OK Go – Of the Blue Colour of the Sky – decent album, it’s their videos that put them over the top, though.

Ted Leo & the Pharmacists – The Brutalist Bricks – has it’s moments, but overall not quite what I was hoping for.

She and Him – Volume Two

The Hold Steady – Heaven Is Whenever – I’m afraid the Hold Steady has fallen into that category where I fell so deeply in love with their first couple albums, that anything “new” won’t compare; it’s unfair to the band because it doesn’t allow them to grow as artists. This is a good album, and I suspect it will continue to grow on me down the road.

Eels – Tomorrow Morning – I’ve been on an Eels kick recently, and this one in particular, where Mark Oliver Everett takes a more optimistic turn hits me in the right place.

Belle & Sebastian – Write About Love – B&S fall into the same category as the Hold Steady for me, my opinion is always too deeply influenced by their previous work. In this case however, this feels like a more natural progression from their previous work and Stuart Murdoch’s God Help the Girl project. This one is growing on me and is among my favorites for the year.

Jonsi – Go – Great album, another favorite… if you are into mainstream pop/rock this will probably be a little too “out there” for you, this is a nice counterpoint to what he’s been doing with Sigur Ros.

Broken Social Scene – Forgiveness Rock Record – I know this is one all the hip music bloggers are supposed to love. It has it’s moments, but overall just isn’t quite my thing.

David Bazan – Curse Your Branches – Interesting reflection on one man’s fall from faith.

Vampire Weekend – Contra – Good alterna-pop, even if you’ve never heard of the band, you’ve probably heard their music in a TV commercial.

Girl Talk  – All Day – Gregg Gillis does the mashup thing so well, and it’s fun to listen just to play the “name that sample” game, but part of me wishes this could be something that it isn’t – a Negativland-esque critique of pop culture and politics.

For a broader take on the music of 2010, check out my friend Rudy, he’s got the critical ear and depth of knowledge I respect.

In terms of books my my two absolute favorites that I read this year are Seth Godin’s Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? and Donald Miller’s A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: What I Learned While Editing My Life. While Godin writes from a primarily a business-marketing perspective and Miller writes from a Christian-memoir one, they both seem to be on a similar tangent, about living life as artists/telling a better story to add meaning in your personal life and to make a difference in the larger world.

I also read Leonard Sweet’s book Nudge and Dwight Friesen’s Thy Kingdom Connected as part of Ooze Viral Bloggers, reviews are here and here – each book had it’s moments, but neither was extraordinary. Malcolm Gladwell’s What the Dog Saw,  World War Z by Max Brooks, and Under the Dome by Stephen King, were also among the 2010 reads – all 3 are good, but I felt King’s could have been better. I know there are other books that should be on this list, but it’s getting late and I haven’t kept good track of what I’ve read.

I know there are other media I could add to the list: movies, blogs, magazines, but I’ll give that a pass this time out.

[Just as a disclaimer, all the links (except for Girl Talk) are Amazon Associate links so I do get a small percentage if you click and buy].

Playing catch-up again, but as I look at the list not a whole lot to report… here’s what’s caught my attention over the last few weeks.

Seth Godin on How to organize a retreat an advance. Also from Seth, Bigger or smaller, which contains this gem of wisdom:

“It’s so tempting to shut people down, to limit the upside, to ostracize, select and demonize. It makes things a lot simpler. Not seeing means you don’t have to take action. Not opening means it’s easier to announce that you’re done. And not raising the bar means you’re less likely to fail.”

Scot McKnight on A Christmas Pledge to Courtesy. He shares this powerful quote from Gina Dalfanzo:

“Christian courtesy is rooted and grounded in the idea that every person—however much we may dislike him or her—is made in the image of God and precious in his sight. It is an ideal that we may struggle to live up to, but the struggle makes us better people; it reminds us to show kindness when every impulse and instinct is urging us to do the opposite. It requires of us something deeper than a rally or a video, something more than the obligatory apology that follows most celebrity catfights. It’s a lifestyle that has to be consciously lived every day.”

In music news, for classic Celtic-punk fans, The Pogues are coming to town.

Another year, another batch of songs to mark the day – some old, some new; some meaningful, some in the mix just because I thought it would sound good.

Jonsi – Go Do
Electronic – Get The Message
Lightening Seeds – All I Want
Vampire Weekend – Horchata
Broken Social Scene – All To All
Arcade Fire – No Cars Go
Belle and Sebastian – The Ghost of Rockschool
Luna – California (All The Way)
The Mountain Goats – Genesis 3:23
The Housemartins – Caravan Of Love
Eels – I Like the Way This Is Going
Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. – Vocal Chords
Primal Scream – Come Together

Dan R. Dick on the Divided Methodist Church – this hurts to read, but in too many places he is speaking truth. Great quotes in there:

“We are not a “united” Methodist Church at the moment and focusing on program and structure when the relationships are damaged and the connection is broken promises nothing but disaster.  The problem is, were we to use our General Conference time to clarify what it means to be United Methodist in the 21st century, to reframe and clarify our theological task in contemporary culture, to codify and commit to our Social Principles, and to recover the missional/evangelical foundation that defined our heritage, it would draw a line in the sand and every living, breathing United Methodist would be forced to answer the key question: do I want to be a United Methodist or not.  And, being perfectly honest, we would probably lose a third to a half of our membership no matter which way we turn.”

and

“We are not “one in Christ, one with each other, and one in ministry to all the world.”  We are a poster child of dysfunction and we tolerate egregious bad behavior.  We communicate poorly — both in content and style — and use information as a weapon more often than as a tool.”

one more line that caught my attention

“We have been a service-provider church for so long that the concept of becoming a disciple-making church is overwhelming.”

Be sure to check out the full article. A couple weeks ago I was in conversation with some colleagues about reclaiming the “radical center” in the church, the time for these political divisions has to come to an end so we can really move forward into building the church of today and tomorrow, instead of rehashing the bitter battles of the past century. The radical center isn’t about more wishy-washy ambiguity around identity and direction, it’s about drawing on the strengths of both camps – vital piety and social holiness, and moving ahead; offering grace to those who can’t travel with us. (Of course it’s a lot easier to throw these words up on this stupid little blog than to be in the position to make some of those hard decisions).

[I wrote those words above a couple weeks ago, I haven’t quite changed my mind since then, but I do find myself feeling nervous about how this “radical center” I speak of will ultimately be understood and defined. There still needs to be room for debate and diversity… it just needs to be done in a better way. If the radical center ever becomes a call for homogeneity in thought or practice, I’d probably have to count myself as one who won’t be able to move forward into this new future.]

I was back in Iowa this last week and saw a few articles from a series the Des Moines Register is doing on East High School. I was really struck by the comment by Ruth Ann Gaines that teacher morale is the lowest she’s seen in nearly 40 years of teaching, as well as the numbers – 70% of students are on free or reduced lunch, the drop-out rate is around 29% and East has the highest numbers for student absenteeism in the city.  Back when I was there it was a somewhat “rough” school – I knew there were kids coming from difficult situations, and just making it to graduation was an accomplishment for them, but it never seemed as bad as what’s being portrayed right now (my guess is the situation has gotten worse, but imagine I was also pretty blind to all that was happening even when I was there). I’m not sure what I can do from 600 miles away, but I’ve had the whole situation on my mind for the last couple days. There are a couple teachers still on staff from when I was a student there, and if nothing else I think I’ll be sending them long-overdue thank you notes for their work.

I’ve posted this before, but it’s worth watching again – Taylor Mali on “What Teachers Make” (warning: some objectionable language and a hand gesture).

Not much really stood out over the past couple weeks, just a couple of posts that caught my attention:

Jay Voorhees on Pastoral Accountability.

Seth Godin on When You Criticize My Choices.

I got hung-up trying to figure out a good song to put up this week… eventually went with Derek Webb, “This Too Shall Be Made Right” – seems like a good song that captures the anticipation of Advent – Luke 1:46-55

Reflecting on the United Methodist Call to Action report, Jay Voorhees asks, What is Congregational Vitality?

Donald Miller on The Joy of Getting Older. I love this last paragraph:

I wish I could go back and talk to myself when I was twenty. I’d say to myself “listen, don’t worry about the things you’ve been worrying about. Everything is going to work out great.” And I’d likely clarify with myself that “In the future I get everything I need?” And I’d say back to myself “No, you just realize you didn’t need it. And that’s even better.”

Seth Godin on Why We Prefer Live. I had the chance to hear Jim Walker (pastor of Hot Metal Bridge Faith Community) and he made the comment that we live in a world where with a click of a button we can hear great preaching any time of any day. While the church needs to use social media to reach new people, we also have to offer the very thing you can’t get over the internet – face-to-face interactions, high-touch experiences, and the power that comes when people are gathered together in the same room.

I haven’t played with this, but it looks interesting – RedNotebook which is a wiki/journaling program (unfortunately Windows and Linux only). Also, via Lifehacker, 10 Things to Know about Photography Law.

Tough look at Detroit from Mother Jones (contains some objectionable language).

November 17 is National Unfriend Day… I’d already been thinking about paring down my Facebook friends, maybe this will be the time to do it.

Build your own home for $5000. Seems like an interesting project, probably not in my future (especially if I want to stay married).

I picked up the latest Eels album last week and have been enjoying it, Tomorrow Morning is the name of it available at all the usual places.