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Prompt:

Prompt:
Liz Danzico – Today
Your genuine action will explain itself, and will explain your other genuine actions. Your conformity explains nothing. The force of character is cumulative. – Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance

If ‘the voyage of the best ship is a zigzag line of a hundred tracks,’ then it is more genuine to be present today than to recount yesterdays. How would you describe today using only one sentence? Tell today’s sentence to one other person. Repeat each day.

(Author: Liz Danzico)

Post:

Dan Dick on the consumer culture we carry with us into the church – You Need to Understand.

Bishop Wil Willimon on the topic of suffering.

Matthew Paul Turner has a really great take on the group (groups?) speculating that this Saturday will bring the end of the world, and how it impacts the faith of the “least of these.” Certainly worth reading.

Church Marketing Sucks provides an overview of how some churches celebrated Mother’s Day. Some really great ideas on that list.

Jordon Cooper reminds us the best resumes don’t necessarily make the best leaders. Also, from a tweet Jordon sent out – read this next time you assume an unemployed (or homeless) person could just get a job at McDonalds – in their most recent hiring blitz they filled 62,000 positions… but received 1 MILLION applications.

The sales pitch for a great little place on Hoth.

Donald Miller on the enneagram, personality types and theological world-views. If you’ve been through seminary, you probably already have a pretty good handle on this, but it’s still interesting to consider.

Jen Lemen’s always brilliant words (especially when you are feeling low) – It’s Never Too Late.

The One Minute Review of Thor

One Minute Review: Thor from Thomas McKenzie on Vimeo.

Seth Godin on What People Want and The Future of the Library. On the library post, I wonder how much is equally applicable to the church:

The next library  church is a place, still. A place where people come together to do co-working and coordinate and invent projects worth working on together. Aided by a librarian pastor who understands the Mesh, a librarian pastor who can bring domain knowledge and people knowledge and access to information to bear.

In a digital age, access to great preaching, Biblical scholarship and theological inspiration are just a couple mouse clicks away. On some levels, the local church can no longer compete in that regard. What the local church has to offer is the opportunity to connect people with each other and with information that will equip them to serve and be the people God calls them to be.

Jay Voorhees – Conversation with a Young Methodist. Also from Jay, The Young Clergy Question – I’m not sure I’m completely on-board with everything he brings up in this post; but I think there is a danger of wanting “young clergy” simply for the idea that they are “young” – especially when the Conference/District/Local Church doesn’t have systems in place to adequately support them. He’s completely right on when he says:

“The problem is not one of age — it’s a system that values conformity to institutional norms above that of leading congregations to a vibrant and living faith that is relevant to people of all ages, backgrounds, and experiences. We have a process that lifts up those who say the right answers or who calm the boat in the storm, and does what it can to stamp out those with an entrepreneurial spirit. The issue isn’t age — it’s values.”

Nice post from Jeremy Smith on some basic Facebook “how-to’s” for pastors. I’ve been in conversation with colleagues that something like this, but even more specific needs to be distributed, as District Superintendents, clergy, and clergy spouses have sometimes pushed the limits of appropriate boundaries of sharing and interaction on Facebook. There is still a lot of gray area with social media in general, but there are some clear needs for basic education as well.

Thom Rainer on The Introverted Leader.

Laurie Haller on Church Bullies another “must read”.

Great post from my friend Jeff Nelson on Resurrection, the Counter, and Mickey Mouse Pancakes.

Jump day, tomorrow… looking forward to it, but I’m sure I’ll be making a deal, too:

Lovett Weems on membership, finances and the future of Methodism; some sobering stuff in there, especially regarding the coming “death tsunami”.

Lovett H. Weems, Jr. – UMC Realities from Lewis Center on Vimeo.

Really interesting TED Talk from Eli Pariser on the “filter bubble” – how the personalization features built into facebook, google, etc. keep us from seeing a broader worldview. (It’s also cool that Eli uses a screenshot from my old college friend, Scott, as part of his presentation). As Eli talks about the filter that operates “behind the scenes” in the algorithms, I found myself also wondering about the filters we create ourselves – this whole “round-up” thing I do every week is basically a filter, and there are pretty clear patterns about my thoughts on church, theology, social media, and music…

Then from Jesus Needs New PR – Joel Olsteen has never heard of Mark Driscoll – interesting to read in context of Eli Parsier’s talk on “filters.” Where do we place our attention? How does it distract? How does it keep us isolated? How does it inform? How does it broaden our worldview?

Roger Olsen on Deep Church – I love that idea of “urban Amish.”

An account of a return to Methodist covenant groups.

Another hard-hitting post from Dan Dick on Wethodism:

“It is time to take the “me” out of Methodism and replace it with “we”.  Somewhere we lost touch with the fact that this is God’s church and that each of us is fortunate and blessed to be allowed to be a part of it.  The church does not exist to serve our individual needs.  It doesn’t exist to make us happy.  It doesn’t exist to make us feel good about ourselves.  It exists to do God’s work and will in the world, and we are invited to be active participants in the glorious creative miracle of God’s unfolding vision.  We have got to get over ourselves.  At the very limited extreme, church may be about “us” as a whole, but never about us merely as individuals.  The whole “me and my buddy Jesus” mentality that pervades our culture has virtually nothing to do with church, Christianity, or the Bible.  Our boiling everything down to a personal and private religion has a historical name — heresy.  It isn’t all about me — and our denomination is suffering an acute case of “me”-thodism.”

Steven Furtick on Charlie Sheen, Tiger Woods and What it Means to Fall From Grace: “The quickest way to fall from grace is to think that there is an ounce of your life that isn’t dependent on it.”


Craig Groeshel on Being Weird:

Fred Clark on Lawnmowers and $40 Nachos – when do we make allowance for the community good?

Jen Lemen on How to Be Happy (Part 2)

A lot was posted on the whole situation surrounding ben Laden, among the many good and thoughtful posts, I appreciated this one from Becca Clark.

From Julie Clawson on being the Body of Christ:

“Is it possible to call people to be living sacrifices when they can’t even be bothered to know who it is they follow? It’s hard enough to talk about turning the other cheek when there are celebratory flash mobs in the streets because we finally killed our enemy. Or to call the church to love their neighbor when people see giving to others as an infringement on their entitlements. But this goes even deeper. It’s a mentality utterly at odds with the entire way of Christ and yet its adherents still claim to be Christian. I struggle with knowing how to respond. I know this issue is nothing new; it’s just difficult to be reminded of its extreme in such a blatant way. But I keep wondering how can the body of Christ ever be healthy when so many of its members are non-functioning?”

I’m Finite, How Are You? 

Michael Hyatt on The Benefits of Playing Full Out

Maybe Hyatt’s post is an appropriate segway to let my friends know this is going to happen on the Wednesday before Annual Conference at 6:00 – feel free to come and watch.

And I do apologize for embedding this…

 For the past couple years I’ve been attentive to Jay Bakker’s ministry – following his twitter feed and subscribing to the Revolution NYC podcast. I have yet to watch the One Punk Under God, but it’s been on my list for a while. What I have seen and heard from Jay, I’ve found to be pretty interesting, and so I was excited to have the chance to review his latest book Fall to Grace: A Revolution of God, Self & Society.

 A couple weeks ago, just as I was a couple chapters into the book, I mentioned that this might be my favorite book of 2011, and that still holds true. What Jay has done is crafted a fantastic, brief, and easy to understand work of practical theology, unpacking the implications of grace.

 Jay draws from his own life, recounting some of the hardships that he faced as a child, with the scandals that turned the Bakker name into front-page news and fodder for late night comedians, while Jay was only eleven, to battles with dyslexia and alcoholism. As he notes, the faith he had during his teen years only served as a “cold comfort” rooted in a form of evangelical legalism with little personal understanding of grace. Attempts to “get right with God” always seemed to fall short. After hitting rock bottom the insight of friends and a careful study of Scripture, especially the Pauline epistles, led him to a place where Jay finally understood that, “Paul’s message wasn’t about guilt and punishment. It was about acceptance; it was about forgiveness; and it applied to me!” (pg. 17).

 This book is rooted in Jay’s personal story, but it is far from a personal memoir. Jay goes on to unpack Paul’s writings on law and grace, drawing primarily from Galatians, but using the other epistles as well for reference points. As someone who tends to focus on the Gospels and the book of James instead of Paul’s writings because of the ways they have been used (and occasionally abused), I really appreciated Jay’s analysis and will go back to these texts with a fresh look. Overall, the book spoke to me deeply about how God’s claim on us is greater than all our attempts (sometimes subtle, sometimes not) to “earn” God’s favor. Jay speaks to a wide-spread (if not universal) doubt Christians often wrestle with around acceptance and genuine forgiveness, and does it with excellence.

 Jay speaks to how, when we truly grasp the concept of grace we will change (and be challenged) as individuals and as a community. Near the end of the book he provides a specific argument to how the idea of grace applies to those in the gay and lesbian community. If you are already familiar with the standard interpretations around inclusion, you won’t find anything new here. Given that Jay’s book will reach an audience unfamiliar with those interpretations, some will be challenged by this section. Even if you disagree with Jay over this issue, I’d encourage you to listen to Jay’s point of view.

 This book attempts to take on some big theological issues in an easy to understand way. Jay’s story speaks to me personally, and I sure it will for others as well. I’d certainly recommend it to others.

(Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book as part of Ooze Viral Bloggers for review. Just getting the book for free didn’t influence my opinion).

 I’m currently reading Jay Bakker’s book Fall to Grace, a full review should be coming in the next couple weeks, but I wanted to share these couple paragraphs this morning:

“The point is that we believers can splinter into all the denominations we want. We can pore over Scripture, finding little issues and phrases (or even differing interpretations of the same phrase) to divide us. We can each claim that our little group is the one with a true comprehension of God’s Word. We can segregate society and close our hearts because of these superficial differences. Or we can begin to patch up these fault lines and fractures we’re created in the church and try to see past our differing interpretations of Scripture to recognize one another as children of the same God.

 “Yes, we can debate our faith – even argue. But in the end, we need to recognize that we’re all members of the same big family. Faith in Christ can be the tie that brings and binds us together, even when everything else threatens to pull us apart.”

(From Fall to Grace: A Revolution of God, Self & Society pg. 97)

Fantastic post from Jay Voorhees that I needed to read this past week – Do United Methodists Believe in Hope?

On the topic of the United Methodist Church, check out Dan Dick’s A Church Shrouded in Mystery on the United Methodist identity crisis.

Another essential post from Donald Miller – What Kind of People Does God Use? Also see the follow-up, Ten Characteristics of a Disciple.

Mason Slater is Tired of Witch Hunts

Dallas Willard – The Problem with Vampire Christianity.

I unfortunately stumbled upon this last week. It creeps me out, but I’m fascinated by it’s very existence. You have been warned.

New Mountain Goats (All Eternals Deck) out this week – I haven’t given it a full listen yet, but so far it seems good. Here’s a few songs from NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert, John Darnielle did last year.

As part of our Seven Churches United, Ash Wednesday service this evening, I’m supposed to be talking about Lent at a time of “spring cleaning” and incorporating the image of water, so I’m dusting off this little meditation I wrote a few years back.

Just a simple twist of the knob
each morning
and warm water rushes over me
Water that washes away
the dirt, grime and sweat
of the day before
Water that
helps me open my weary eyes
awakens me from sleep
Water that
refreshes, rejuvenates
prepares me for a new day
A miracle?
Not quite
But a reminder
Of Jesus who entered the Jordan
and was refreshed by God’s grace
     Spirit-descending, declared “Beloved” by on high
A reminder
of my own baptism
(even though I was too young to remember)
A reminder
that God’s grace is still at work
in my life
Washing away the old
Preparing me for the new
Opening my eyes to the day ahead
New possibilities
In the presence of God
Many miles from the River Jordan
We still follow Christ
Stepping into streams of blessing
Washed by the showers of God’s love.

Mike Slaughter on Meaningful Worship.

Roger Olsen asks, Why Do Conservatives & Liberals Worship Differently? identifying an interesting paradox theologically conservative congregations (generally) tend to be more open to experimentation in worship, compared to more mainline/liberal churches.

Essential reading from Donald Miller, especially as the UMC prepares for another General Conference: How Infighting will Kill the Church.

Seth Godin on Bankruptcy. Draw your own conclusions between this and the previous link.

Also may or may not be related, another post from Miller, How a Consumer Thinks.

I discovered the guy I used to play ultimate frisbee with back in high school now is a journalist specializing in foreign policy. Here’s a great piece he’s written on  Organizing the Egyptian Rebellion, noting that it seems to be a product BOTH of new social media, but also built up traditional structures of social organization (unions, community groups, etc.).

Just because I find this kind of stuff fascinating: What Not to Bring to Egypt.

Friend, Bri, reminds us to Do It Today.

8 Ways to Know It’s Time to Quit.

Reasons to Not Think Outside the Box.

Slacktivist on the Politics of Spite.

Craig Groshel on not just building the local church, build the kingdom:

There’s a really important message in there, but as much as I believe it, I also struggle with it… I’m continually tempted to want “my church” to be a little better than the one down the street.

On a much less serious note – real life Mario-cart!!

New music from Danielson on the way. Ships doesn’t have the appeal that it once did for me, but I’m looking forward to see what this new one will bring.