Archive for the ‘Emerging Church’ Category:
The State of Worship, Part 2: Purpose and Motivation
The first part of this post was (honestly) mostly a rant, but it outlined some of the problem from my perspective. I make no claims that it is THE perspective to view this debate from, only that it could be a common one. Having been a guitarist for six years, which is longer than I’ve been a Christian (and thus listening to Christian music), I bring a “less-churched,” if not an “un-churched,” perspective to the table.
Worship is ANYTHING that we do that fulfills God’s purpose for us and thus glorifies Him. This can be anything from working in your garden and rearing children with your spouse (Genesis 1:28) to writing and playing sweet guitar riffs (Psalm 33:3). If we do these things with God-given motivation and purpose, then we are worshipping Him indeed!
A fair number of Christians, particularly those in the American Evangelical Christian “sub-culture,” seem to have abandoned or compromised the very motivations and purposes that define worship, with respect to music. Read more »
The Value of Risk in a Risk-Averse Culture
When I was in high school, my Dad encouraged me to pursue a career in financial planning. I really did like the idea of helping people get out of debt, invest wisely, and build wealth. But the career I really wanted was in law enforcement. While my Dad wanted me safely behind a desk from 8-5, I wanted the freedom of keeping the peace in a roaming patrol car at all hours of the night.
I’ve learned over the last several years that I’m a bit of a closet adrenaline junky, and thrive in stressful or risk-inherent environments. But I’ve also learned that this is not necessarily the norm for our culture.
Read more »
emergent laughs
I’ve heard that one of the ways one can gauge the strength of Christianity is how well Christians are able to poke good fun at themselves. So it is with great joy that I present to you this gem of a find.
I submit this satirical article here, from Lark News. It’s hilarious, and awfully indicative of some of what I hear in seminary. Let’s face it, the Christian sub-culture can be pretty silly sometimes, but it’s pleasing that we can afford to laugh about it in good fun.
Enjoy!
Lost in Translation Part 1
I have come to have a renewed appreciation for the “glass ceiling” that limits relationships in the blogosphere. Yes, we can exchange ideas, beliefs, and opinions with many to spare, yet it is a different story when we cannot be so personally invested in relationship. Because of the limits to personal interaction, there is a limit to shared experience as well. And while we exchange “ideas,” we do so in a sterile environment, bereft of the richness and depth of experience each of us has to offer.
A friend of mine was recently talking about how she was able to put 8 years of learning French to use at work. Her employer often deals with another company in Canada. While they normally have an English option, they received an email that was entirely in French, so her co-workers called her over. She sat down and started reading the email, some of it out loud. She explained that for some reason, this company couldn’t respond at this time, they weren’t there anymore, etc. She was excited that she could understand what they were writing and hadn’t lost many of her hard-earned skills.
Towards the bottom she realized that it was an automatic “out of office reply” sent by the system. Read more »
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