Social Bookmarks
Sweat Shops
Stumbled across an interesting website while reading the blogosphere.
No Sweat Apparel is company who lists the actual union and where the product came from on each of their items. Quite an interesting setup they have, I’ll probably be checking back from time to time, but right now the only good thing they have going is their T’s. I’m all for some good ‘ol fashion statement T’s but I wear a lot of button down shirts, which they don’t have. So it looks like I’ll still be shopping elsewhere (trying to avoid the Gap of course) and hoping that my shirt wasn’t made by an eight year old making less than a dollar a week.
Hopefully they’ll get some good stuff in soon, in the meantime I’ll probably buy a shirt or two for me and the wife in hopes they’ll be able to expand a bit.
Series
I’m going to start a new series over the next few weeks, probably a week thing entitled “The Ramifications of Being (an) Emergent.” Nifty, eh?
What I really want to talk about is the issues that can be brought up with the mainstream church and emergents. So much time is spent bashing theology (from both camps) that it sometimes makes me sick. I want to talk about the changes that occur within the conversation of emergents that can be applied to all.
I really don’t want to discuss theology because I realize that there are vast differences in emergent thinking. (Yet we have a certain sense of unity if you notice) We (emergents) do have one common unifying theme that I think the mainstream church lacks. Social Justice.
So really over the next few weeks I want to expound upon my ideas starting with “The Social Ramifications of Being (an) Emergent.” While thinking through all of this I came to the realization that everything else builds upon the foundation of Social Justice.
I should have the first post up in the next few days. I’m going to take some time with these because I don’t want it to be the gaggle of thoughts the first three posts were.
We’ll see how it turns out.
Change-over complete
Finally got through moving over my .mac blog stuff over here. A whopping three posts, but there were some (more) ftp issues.
Anyways, everything will update from here now.
Anger
So I have been thinking for a while, what would the world be like if we actually followed the message of Jesus? You see we really think we are, we’re convinced that we are, yet for the most part we’re so far off mark I’m not sure we’d hit it if it were as big as God is. See, we’re convinced that we are perfectly fine following in Christ’s footsteps yet still holding onto our angry ways.
I write this with a semi-smirk, If there was anyone who has had anger issues it’s me. I spent over half of my life angry at my real father. He abandoned us as kids, never tried contacting us or any other thing’s you’d expect of a father. So I held that anger and resentment for a while, I couldn’t let it go. I’d even joke about it. Sad really. It’s gone now, over the past few months I’ve began to lose the ability to really remain angry. Sure I still get angry at times, but the anger passes. What would happen if we, not just Christians but all of us were to let go?
Really, just let go. Does have the ability to truly guess the impact of such a thing? What would happen if we could forgive those asking for it? What would happen if we forgave those who aren’t asking for it. This anger that we hold, it really does nothing beneficial for us, yet we retain it, we lash out with it, we embrace it and cherish it like it is the last thing we have to hold on to.
Somewhere along the lines the anger that we hold became an acceptable part of the Christian tradition. It became acceptable to “Kill those towel heads” because they attacked us. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t defend our country, I think we have a need to do so, but if we move past “defense” to “it’s ok, let’s just nuke the mideast and let ‘them‘ have what they deserve,” then something has gone terribly wrong.
I may sound like I’m coming out of left field with that last sentence, but I have heard similar such statements made from leadership before. Scary, right?
One wonders how many parables would have ended if the anger that was undoubtedly there within the characters lives had not dissipated. The good samaritan? He was vilified and hated by the Jews. Hated. He was to the Jews what Al Qaida is to Baptists. The hated enemy. Did he have reason to be angry with the Jews? Yes. Was anger represented in his caring for the Jew on the side of the road? No.
What do we do with this? How does one let go of their anger? If I had a nickel for every time I heard one of my baptist preachers say “Give it to God” I’d have my college tuition paid for, but I think in this case they have it right. Let it go.
Hell
Oh this is the topic, for me it’s been one of the hardest topics to wrestle with. I’ve put off reading McLaren’s book “The Last Word and the Word After That,”which deals largely (in fact almost solely) with the topic of Hell. Before I began reading the book I spent some time giving thought to my opinions on Hell. (I stop here to wonder if I should capitalize Hell)
I grew up of the opinion that Hell was a physical place where those who didn’t confess Christ as Lord and Savior here on Earth would spend Eternity in torment (physical anguish, fire, etc…). As I grew up a little bit, this just seemed cruel, somewhere around my freshman year in college I changed my opinion to think Hell meant eternal separation from God. I was happy with this opinion until around two months ago. It’s kind of a scary thought, the prospect that a large part of your belief system isn’t quite what you thought it would be.
There are a few things I have noticed about Hell. Scary things. Not the burning in darkness scariness, but the life changing scariness. Before my opinions changed, I spent time thinking about what Hell has become. One of the largest revelations of this said journey came from my realization that Hell, not God, not Heaven, not true life, has become the source of Christian power.
Oh how heretical of me.
So true isn’t it? When we control the futures of people, we not just in essence but in true pure reality control those people. I’m not blaming this on one group, one time frame, or one church, but I’m stating it as an over time revelation that has changed the face of our religion.
Nothing scarred me more as a child then the prospect of going to hell. My God, how terrible that place must be. But, I grew up baptist, so hell fire and brimstone was a regular part of the dialect there, and once surrounded by it, I began to enjoy it.
Yes, I enjoyed it. It’s a common theme among Christian churches (evangelicals even more so). You see, it starts out as our form of vengeance. “This person is treating me wrong, I don’t think a Christian, put two and two together and this person is going to burn.” Thus begins the path down a journey that doesn’t stop unless you put some effort into it.
We move from this status of it’s just where they’ll end up to an idea that we get to pick and choose those who end up “with us” and those who end up “down there.” This turns into a sort of exclusivism that is inherently dangerous toward the very ideals of Christ.
Back to fear. If we cause enough fear in someone we can use that to convert them to our religion. An interesting idea to look at, considering the original truth was love. Christ, when talking to others, he used imagery of love and passion, of hope and redemption.
I’m sure there will be more to come on this topic, but I am headed to class and just needed to throw down a few of my thoughts. Sorry for the incoherentness and disorganization. You’ll have to forgive me.
Do I need to even start with all thats wrong with this picture?
Futures
So I have this habit, it’s known among my friends, where I want a new career every other week. (Ok not that often, but more often than most) I’ve wanted to be a police officer, a fast food chain owner, a TV personality, a radio personality, and a supply store owner. All of those within the past two years.
But again my mind has been changed; this opinion, this passion I could say, has stuck with me for longer than the rest. It’s one that I had many years ago. It’s been pushed back. It’s been hidden. It’s been denied. It’s been ignored.
I want to do church. But the future of that desire remains in question.
I have been looking at, over the past six months, different seminaries as well as checking out various church jobs at various times. On the first front I’ve narrowed down my “contenders” to three, Biblical (in PA), Mars Hill (in Seattle), and Fuller (In Cali). All of which are quite emergent friendly (even up to spurring much of the emergent conversation).
On the other front I’m challenged.
I want to work for the church I currently attend, but I’ve found myself more and more dissatisfied with it. I hoped to stay in, integrate, and change it as much as I could, but a recent discovery has somewhat challenged my belief that such change is even possible.
One of the new bloggers that I frequent (Josh Brown) has an article entitled “Exodus Papers” (download) discusses the “Exodus” of a group of Bloggers from their mainstream church jobs. (I’d suggest you stop reading this blog now and read the article first)
I find myself somewhat disheartened.
Can the mainstream church (Congregational number driven churches) not be saved? Can the radical message of Jesus not be brought to the places that claim to bring it to others? If I were to find my job, my very own church job, would my theology stop me from being happy?
A conversation with an acquaintance (with the passing of time hopefully more than that) recently I discussed a desire to eventually start a church. We discussed theology, he talked of friends who held similar views as to the problems of the current status-quo of the church, and we agreed that sometime soon we should all meet for dinner and discuss.
Perhaps this group will actually spark into something else. But that doesn’t stop the fear in my mind of leaving the mainstream church behind to it’s own devices. Somewhere inside this disheartened, dissatisfied individual remains a sliver of hope, that perhaps the church I currently call home can be saved. Perhaps the Message can be delivered in it, perhaps we focus away from numbers and our sparkling new multimillion dollar building to the projects not ten miles from our church. Perhaps we can look past our traditional idea of “Mission trips” as being about delivering the “Message” (as it is known to this particular church) to living the Message.
Finally
Taken some time but I finally managed to get blogger to work with my FTP server. Very geeky stuff went on, some of which I actually understood. Anyways, three day’s later and here I have it, my blog on my personal URL in stead of a .mac blog. Fun times, eh?
-Now it won’t let me upload new stuff. Great