Welcome to this week’s edition of “The Sunday Seven.” As always, this post is all about sharing some of the more interesting news and insights that I have encountered throughout the week, as well as a little humor meant to lighten your day. Hopefully, as you scan the links, you’ll find a little something here that will peak your interest and give you pause to think. Enjoy! Read the rest of this entry »
So what does the leadership of a highly visible mega church do when it begins to feel the pressure mount in the aftermath of a questionable course of action?
A week and a half ago, Harvest Bible Chapel took its next step in trying to answer this question by inviting only the men of the church to a special Sunday night “prayer meeting.” According to multiple sources, when the men arrived at the church, it immediately became clear that this was going to be more than a typical “prayer meeting.” Amidst a heightened security presence, the attendees were advised to turn off all phones and/or recording devices, shortly before being advised to report anyone seen using such a device to the security. Read the rest of this entry »
Mars Hill Church. By all the “measurable” standards promoted by the Church Growth Movement, it stands as one of the towering monuments amongst the 1300 Protestant megachurches presently dotting the landscape of this nation. With a weekly attendance of over 12,000 people gathering on fourteen different campuses in four different states, it’s lead pastor, Mark Driscoll, has become something of a “rock star” amongst the evangelical faithful. His sermon podcasts generally exceed 100,000 downloads per week; he authors New York Times best-selling books on the subject of marital sex; and he does media tours and interviews on popular daytime shows such as The View. As I said: “rock star.” Read the rest of this entry »
“In the late 1940s, the United States government commissioned William Francis Gibbs to work with United States Lines to construct an eighty million dollar troop carrier for the navy. The purpose was to design a ship that could speedily carry fifteen thousand troops during times of war. By 1952, construction on the SS United States was complete. The ship could travel at forty-four knots (about fifty-one miles per hours), and she could steam ten thousand miles without stopping for fuel or supplies. She could outrun any other ship and travel nonstop anywhere in the world in less than ten days. The SS United States was the fastest and most reliable troop carrier in the world.
The only catch is, she never carried troops. At least not in any official capacity. The ship was put on standby once during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, but otherwise she was never used in all her capacity by the U.S. Navy.
Instead the SS United States became a luxury liner for presidents, heads of state and a variety of other celebrities who traveled on her during her seventeen years of service. As a luxury liner, she couldn’t carry fifteen thousand people. Instead she could house just under two thousand passengers. Those passengers could enjoy the luxuries of 695 staterooms, 4 dining salons, 3 bars, 2 theaters, 5 acres of open deck with a heated pool, 19 elevators, and the comfort of the world’s first fully air-conditioned passenger ship. Instead of a vessel used for battle during wartime, the SS United States became a means of indulgence for wealthy patrons who desired to coast peacefully across the Atlantic.
Things look radically different on a luxury liner than they do on a troop carrier. The faces of soldiers preparing for battle and those of patrons enjoying their bonbons are radically different. The conservation of resources on a troop carrier contrasts sharply with the opulence that characterizes the luxury liner. And the pace at which the troop carrier moves is by necessity much faster than that of the luxury liner. After all, the troop carrier has an urgent task to accomplish; the luxury liner, on the other hand, is free to casually enjoy the trip.
When I think about the history of the SS United States, I wonder if she has something to teach us about the history of the church. The church, like the SS United States, has been designed for battle. The purpose of the church is to mobilize a people to accomplish a mission. Yet we seem to have turned the church as a troop carrier into the church as a luxury liner. We seem to have organized ourselves, not to engage in battle for the souls of people around the world, but to indulge ourselves in the peaceful comforts of the world.”
The excerpt above was taken from David Platt’s New York Times Best-Selling Radical, and can be found on pages 169-171.
As the ever-expanding world of social media appears to be systematically eliminating anything close to what we might have once called “privacy,” it should probably come as no surprise that there is now a social site dedicated to announcing where you have most recently worn a condom. You read that right. Just as you might utilize Foursquare or Facebook to “check in” at a restaurant or a theater or a ballgame, Planned Parenthood has now developed a new website targeting teens and young adults, called “Where Did You Wear It?” In short, it allows you to “check in” on where you just had sex with a condom because after all, “sex that safe should be shared!”
And just how much should we expect you to share? Well, after entering in all the pertinent geographic information, the site also allows you to add a few more details. Because after all, it’s not enough that everyone knows where you’re having sex. This is the “Information Age.” It’s the “Age of Jersey Shore.” We need more!
So what’s your gender? Male? Female? Trans? What about the gender of your partner? No point in making any assumptions or in protecting his or her identity. This is all about maximum exposure.
How was the sex? Was it “ah-maz-ing,” as in “rainbows exploded and mountains trembled?” Or was it a bit more … down-to-earth, say “a work in progress?” Don’t be shy, now. Spill the beans. We want to know. Was your world rocked or was it not?!
Every once in a while, in a culture as vast and as complex as ours, you run across something so patently “new” that it’s difficult to know where to even begin an analysis. And so today, I simply want to leave the analysis up to you. What do you think Planned Parenthood is trying to accomplish through this site? What exactly are they trying to normalize and should it be normalized? What about what we, as a society, are sacrificing for this to be normalized? Is there moral value in trying to protect people from the consequences of their actions? What about the value in teaching privacy as a virtue of sorts? Or is the concept of privacy growing increasingly “passe” in a hyper-connected world? Regardless of religious affiliation, do you want to be part of a society that “checks in” on a site such as this? Why? Or why not? And if the whole point is being “proud to wear protection,” why is there no ability to “share” this information directly through your personal Facebook account or Twitter? The comment section is yours. Have at it, readers.
March 18, 2012Welcome to this week’s edition of “The Sunday Seven.” As always, this post is all about sharing some of the more interesting news and insights that I have encountered throughout the week, as well as a little humor to lighten your day. Hopefully, there’s a little something here that will peak your interest and give you pause to think. Enjoy!
The power of questions in the sharing of the gospel. In this new series found on Scot McKnight’s Jesus Creed, Andrew Wilson explores the role of questions in a post-Christian culture. Could be an interesting discussion to follow.
Is Kony 2012 Good or Bad? As is ususally the case, Rachel Held Evans brings her usual light touch to a sensitive topic, offering insights that are worthy of your consideration. Hands down, the most balanced presentation I’ve seen on this issue.
An Evangelical and Critical Approach to Scripture. A wise and timely piece on the need to read Scripture through the eyes of “critical faith.”
Abortion: The Democrat’s “Muslim Obama.” From J.D. Kirk’s “Storied Theology” blog, this will push buttons on both the left and the right, which is often, if not always, a sign of good thinking.
Talk About Sex. Again, from J.D. Kirk’s “Storied Theology” blog. Even as I read the article, I find myself wanting to say, “But, but, but …” And by the time I got to the end, I realized that my “buts” were exactly the point he was trying to make.
Jesus Holds a Business Meeting. Kinda painful if this describes your church (which it probably does!). Credit to Ryan Mahoney for finding this.
Having just received a copy of David Platt’s Radical: Taking Back Your Faith From the American Dream, I am already anticipating that it will make my top-10 books of 2012. Here, are the opening few pages for your consideration. If they capture your imagination, be sure to purchase the book. It only gets better.
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“The youngest megachurch pastor in history.”
While I would dispute that claim, it was nonetheless the label given to me when I went to pastor a large, thriving church in the Deep South — the Church at Brook Hills in Birmingham, Alabama. From the first day I was immersed in strategies for making the church bigger and better. Authors I respect greatly would make statements such as “Decide how big you want your church to be and go for it, whether that’s five, ten, or twenty thousand members.” Soon my name was near the top of the list of pastors of the fastest-growing U.S. churches. There I was … living out the American church dream.
But I found myself becoming uneasy. For one thing, my model in ministry is a guy who spent the majority of his ministry time with twelve men. A guy who, when he left this earth, had only about 120 people who were actually sticking around and doing what he told them to do. More like a minichurch, really. Jesus Christ – the youngest minichurch pastor in history.
So how was I to reconcile the fact that I was now pastoring thousands of people with the fact that my greatest example in ministry was known for turning away thousands of people? Whenever the crowd got big, he’d say something such as “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” Not exactly the sharpest church-growth tactic. I can almost picture the looks on the disciples’ faces. “No, not the drink-my-blood speech! We’ll never get on the list of the fastest growing movements if you keep asking them to eat you.”
By the end of that speech, all the crowds had left, and only twelve men remained. Jesus apparently wasn’t interested in marketing himself to the masses. His invitations to potential followers were clearly more costly than the crowds were ready to accept and he seemed to be okay with that. He focused instead on the few who believed him when he said radical things. And through their radical obedience to him, he turned the course of history in a new direction.
Soon I realized I was on a collision course with an American church culture where success is defined by bigger crowds, bigger budgets, and bigger buildings. I was now confronted with a startling reality: Jesus actually spurned the things that my church culture said were the most important. So what was I to do? I found myself faced with two big questions.
The first was simple. Was I going to believe Jesus? Was I going to embrace Jesus even though he said radical things that drove the crowds away?
The second question was more challenging. Was I going to obey Jesus? My biggest fear, even now, is that I will hear Jesus’ words and walk away, content to settle for less than radical obedience to him. In other words, my biggest fear is that I will do exactly what most people did when they encountered Jesus in the first century.
That’s why I’ve written this book. I am on a journey. But I am convinced it is not just a journey for pastors. I am convinced these questions are critical for the larger community of faith in our country today. I am convinced that we as Christ followers in American churches have embraced values and ideas that are not only unbiblical, but that actually contradict the gospel we claim to believe. And I am convinced we have a choice.
You and I can choose to continue with business as usual in the Christian life and in the church as a whole, enjoying success based on the standards defined by the culture around us. Or we can take an honest look at the Jesus of the Bible and dare to ask what the consequences might be if we really believed him and really obeyed him.
I invite you to join the journey with me. I do not claim to have all the answers. If anything, I have more questions than answers. But if Jesus is who he said he is, and if his promises are as rewarding as the Bible claims they are, then we may discover that satisfaction in our lives and success in the church are not found in what our culture deems most important but in radical abandonment to Jesus.
If this is what passes for acceptable within certain circles, I wonder if we haven’t crossed some sort of threshold in terms of our ability to engage in civil discourse. Between this and the Bill Maher/Rush Limbaugh “hate speech” flare-up, I really do wonder …
My apologies for the poor quality of the image. This was the best I could find on the net, and it was stamped with a watermark. For the impatient among you, the bumper sticker reads as follows:
“Don’t Re-Nig in 2012. Stop repeat offenders. Don’t reelect Obama!”
March 11, 2012Welcome to this week’s edition of “The Sunday Seven.” As always, this post is all about sharing some of the more interesting news and insights that I have encountered throughout the week. What’s more, it also includes one of the funnier videos I’ve seen in quite some time. Hopefully, there’s a little something here that will peak your interest and give you pause to think. Enjoy!
Creation, Evolution and Christian Lay People – Part 2. Last week, I posted the first of a six-part series that Tim Keller is doing over at the Bio Logos site. You may not agree with Keller’s take on creation/evolution, but even if you disagree, the nuggets of wisdom he sprinkles throughout the discussion are priceless. Take for instance this week’s discussion on whether we can interpret some passages of Scripture literally while interpreting others in a non-literal fashion. Keller has the gift of C.S. Lewis in terms of translating the seemingly-complex into the simply-profound.
100 Million Christians persecuted says British group. For those of us that live in the historically “Christianized” West, this is a great reminder that many around the globe are facing open persecution because of their faith in Jesus the Christ.
Mapping of the human genome declines to $100o per person. As the cost of mapping the human genome continues to decline, we are approaching a time when we will possess the ability to predict our susceptibility to certain diseases.
Divorce rate for couples over 50 doubles over past two decades. Though the national divorce rate has been on the decline since its all-time peak in the 1980s, “gray divorce” continues to rise, raising questions as to what is driving this trend.
I’m not telling you anything about this clip. Just watch and enjoy.
Washington Redskins Trade for the Number Two Draft pick. Can’t decide if this is good news or bad news for the Dallas Cowboys. Either way, an unprecedented move in NFL history.
Just over one month from now, the long-in-gestation film adaptation of Blue Like Jazz is finally due to be released in theaters across the United States. Based on the New York Times best selling memoir by Donald Miller, it tells the story of a young Baptist kid struggling to retain his faith at Reed College, the “most godless campus in America.” While other, more cautious directors might be tempted to cash in on the “family friendly” Christian market, Steve Taylor, the semi-famous Christian musician from the 80s and the director of this film, had no such interest in that sort of project.
“I made it clear to all our potential investors and/or heads of media companies, the vast majority of whom were fellow Christians, that this was not going to be a family movie. The reason was simple: How do you tell the story of a college kid who flees his Southern Baptist upbringing in suburban Houston to attend the ‘most godless campus in America’ without showing what that environment is like? And how can that environment be portrayed realistically in the context of a ‘family’ movie? Doesn’t have to be rated R, but it’s probably going to be PG-13, right?”[1]
What will be interesting to see is whether this film can find its theatrical legs. By opting to eschew the “family friendly” template, Taylor has potentially alienated a large segment of the population that might typically flock to see the latest “Christian” film. At yet, at the same time, he is asking the broader movie-going audience to embrace a story about a young man’s desire to maintain his faith amidst a decidedly secular environment. It’s a risky gamble to be sure, and one that is likely to either cause this film to flop under the weight of Taylor’s decision or soar as audiences embrace a “Christian” film that has the courage to tell its story in a non-sanitized way.
In either case, Blue Like Jazz appears to be a classic coming-of-age tale, similar in some ways to Zach Braff’s 2004 cult phenomenon, Garden State. And if its status as an “Official Selection of the South by Southwest Film Festival” is any indication, we could be in for a genuine treat. If you’re on the edge on this one, do yourself a favor and at least check out the trailer below.
