Re-visioning E-vangelism
I posted this request tonight on e-vangelism.com, and also sent it out to readers of my Good News Bulletin. Whether you've read the book or not, if you've got opinions or ideas about version 2.0, I'd love to hear your comments -- either here or there. I'll be devoting quite a bit of time to this project over the next several weeks and months, so would appreciate any thoughts. Thanks.
:: Andrew 20:14 + ::
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Taking a break from Alison Krauss
For me, a little bit of bluegrass goes a long way. Now playing: "Heaven," by Talking Heads, from the CD "Fear of Music".
Heaven
Everyone is trying to get to the bar.
The name of the bar, the bar is called Heaven.
The band in Heaven plays my favorite song.
They play it once again, they play it all night long.
Heaven is a place where nothing ever happens.
Heaven is a place where nothing ever happens.
There is a party, everyone is there.
Everyone will leave at exactly the same time.
Its hard to imagine that nothing at all
could be so exciting, and so much fun.
Heaven is a place where nothing ever happens.
Heaven is a place where nothing ever happens.
When this kiss is over it will start again.
It will not be any different, it will be exactly
the same.
It's hard to imagine that nothing at all
could be so exciting, could be so much fun.
Heaven is a place where nothing every happens.
Heaven is a place where nothing every happens.
:: Andrew 15:05 + ::
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Another blog bites the dust
A very nice blog, Tolle, Blog, is no more. Apparently the author couldn't come to grips with the fact that his site was, in his words, "A tiny blip in the midst of a self-important and over-rated internet trend." Or maybe he could come to grips with that fact, and we who remain cannot. Anyway, Josh Claybourn has more to say about blog turnover than I.
Taking Tolle Blog's place on my blogroll is M Squared T, a fellow lectio diviner.
:: Andrew 14:58 + ::
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Some Friday frivolity
No deep thoughts today, my friends. I overslept this morning, skipped lectio divina, and have been running like the March Hare ever since. But for now, I'm catching my breath and enjoying this fun post on words, courtesy Bene Diction. My favorite: Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.
:: Andrew 10:54 + ::
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:: Thursday, March 06, 2003 ::
Philip Yancey's mountaintop experiences
Nice little piece about one of my favorite authors. "In Colorado there are 54 mountains over 14,000 feet. I've climbed 35 of the 54 and I'd like to climb all of them. I do most of my writing in a cabin in the mountains and I do something every day -- skiing or cross-country skiing usually -- to get out in the world. The main lesson is that it shows how small we are. It makes you feel like a small creature. You get up in the mountains and you realize you're just a frail and small being -- it's a good thing to keep in mind."
Thanks to DJ Chuang for the link.
:: Andrew 10:47 + ::
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A sign I've been too long in the Ozarks...
I'm really getting into this live CD by Alison Krauss and Union Station. Just can't get enough of those dobros, banjos and Alison's mellow voice and kick-butt violin -- er, fiddle.
(Baby) even so, this news is just too weird for me to fathom.
:: Andrew 15:30 + ::
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On the radio, again
Only this time, I'm not shilling for my favorite local public radio station, but blatantly promoting my newest book. You can listen live sometime shortly after 5 p.m. EST today (Thursday, March 6), on the CDR radio network broadcasting in Ohio and Kentucky.
:: Andrew 08:34 + ::
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:: Wednesday, March 05, 2003 ::
Lectio divina, day four
I've read enough of Henri Nouwen's works to grasp, at least somewhat, the importance of passivity in the Christian life. And I think that one reason why lectio divina is such a powerful prayer technique is because it works through our passivity. Instead of prayer being an active event, it is a passive one. It is a matter of reading and waiting, of being receptive, rather than being active and forceful. This, however, goes against the grain of my human nature. I am so used to being active, to doing, that becoming passive is difficult for me.
Passivity was especially difficult to achieve this morning. I set about planning to actively do the lectio divina. I'd already picked an appropriate Psalm -- one of David's "war psalms," Psalm 3, in which he seeks God for rescue and relief from his enemies (in this case, his own son, Absalom). This seemed an appropriate Psalm for the day, given the "attacks" on the university I work for, and the leader of that university, in the newspaper the night before -- published despite my attempts to persuade the passive-aggressive petty tyrant of an editor and, later, the reporter he assigned to do the story, to reconsider the newsworthiness of the entire subject, which was based on an anonymous letter from an alleged employee of the university. (The university I work for has the misfortune of being located in the same community that also is home to the worst daily newspaper in Missouri. That newspaper yesterday published a report based on allegations from an anonymous letter criticizing the chancellor of our university. I would link to the story, but the RDN does not archive its articles. Like its dead-tree editions -- "yesterday's newspaper is today's fish wrapper" -- the online version is also ephemeral, much more so than most newspapers with an online presence.) I'd stayed up half the night contemplating the appropriate response to the article -- whether to compose a letter to the editor myself, collaborate with the chancellor, withhold the meager ad budget we have for that newspaper, send my own anonymous letter, etc.
So I set about reading Psalm 3. I read it twice, listening for God's still, small voice. Then I read it a third time. And then I heard that still small voice -- a nudge, a reminder, a snippet of Scripture from another Psalm: Fret not thyself because of evildoers. I recognized that line. It's the opening to Psalm 37. So I turned there. I read anxiously -- not passively -- hoping to find something to justify my anger and my plans for revenge -- but my eyes fell on these verses:
Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for Him ...
Cease from anger, and forsake wrath;
Do not fret--it only causes harm.
Psalm 37:7-8
Damn.
That's not what I wanted the still, small voice to say to me this morning. But the voice from Scripture was insistent. As to whether I'll heed that voice or bow to my own human cravings is a great test this morning. The day has only begun. I haven't heard from anyone else on campus, including the chancellor, about this issue, but I'm sure I'll get loads of cousel. Nevertheless, there are two truisms in public relations that I must always keep in mind when considering whether to respond to bad press:
1. Yesterday's newspaper is today's fish wrapper, bird-cage liner, etc.; and
2. Don't get into an argument with someone who buys ink by the barrel
:: Andrew 07:52 + ::
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Ash Wednesday update
Doing penance for my introversion:
9 a.m.: Attend cabinet meeting with roomful of extroverts.
9 a.m.-11:55 a.m.: Endure insufferable blather from domineering extroverts.
11:56 a.m.: Potty break.
noon: Begin next meeting.
1:15 p.m.: Escape from meeting; dash to nearest sandwich shop.
1:30 p.m.: Return to office to phone messages and e-mails, all of which are urgent.
1:35 p.m.: Sneak into lunch room with reading material; attempt to eat lunch uninterrupted.
1:40 p.m.: Have lunch interrupted by co-worker (also an introvert) who turns on lunch room TV.
1:55 p.m.: Attempt to duck into office to recuperate.
2 p.m.: Hold impromptu staff meeting to update co-workers.
2:30 p.m.: Attempt to end meeting before small talk sets in.
3:15 p.m.: Adjourn meeting.
3:16 p.m.: Vegetate.
3:30 p.m.: Read and respond to e-mails, phone calls, in between staff interruptions.
4 p.m.: Hit the blogs.
Was it penance? Or purgatory? Or just another day in an academic bureaucrat's life, which only seemed like hell?
Today's lectio divina meditation
This morning was so hectic -- getting ready for meeting hell -- that I forgot to post a thought about today's lectio divina. The morning scripture focus was from Psalm 19, especially:
May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
be pleasing in your sight,
O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.
Psalm 19:14
Forgive me, Lord. I flunked today.
:: Andrew 16:35 + ::
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:: Tuesday, March 04, 2003 ::
And so begins Lent
Today is Ash Wednesday, an important day among liturgical Christians, but less so among those of us from the low church evangelical traditions. I'll be celebrating this day in my own low-church evangelical fashion, meaning I won't be wearing a cross of oily ash smeared across my forehead. It is, after all, the first Wednesday of the month, and for the youth group I work with, the first Wednesday of the month is a very high holy day indeed. It is "gym night," and woe be unto the youth pastor who cancels gym night for something as insignificant as Ash Wednesday.
So, I'll try to give a little spiritual pep talk about the significance of this date in our Christian tradition, and somehow try to tie it to the game of basketball. Any ideas, dear readers?
Other Ash Wednesday thoughtsAlan Creech posts a good thought about this day and its significance in his life. It's worth the read. Mark Shea is giving up blogging for Lent. Link via blogs4God. Here's a good Ash Wednesday quote via Debi Warford. It's been done before, but... a New Zealand woman offers President Bush an Ash Wednesday gift in exchange for no war with Iraq. Via Holy Weblog.
:: Andrew 08:21 + ::
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The introvert's moment of Net fame
As though we introverts aren't arrogant enough without this, but now Jonathan Rauch's Atlantic article, "Caring for Your Introvert," is making us feel like Leonardo DiCaprio's Titanic character, Jack, when he climbed to the mast of that ship and proclaimed to a raging, uncaring ocean, "I'm king of the world!" For the moment, at least. And before that moment passes, I'm going to take advantage of the sudden Net buzz about introversion.
Thanks to Rauch's thoughtful essay, we introverts now have our moment of fame on the Net. While our deliberation and thoughtfulness is looked down upon in the extrovert-dominated "real world" -- the world of chatty, interminable staff meetings; office social committees; schmoozing and small talk; and far too many shoot-from-the-lip decisionmaking -- we are able, on the Internet, to bask in the limelight that extroverts are always hogging in the offline world. We then link to the article, compose our own here! here! comments on the subject (many introverts prefer to write, while most extroverts prefer oral communication) and post them to our weblogs, which are then read by our little online conclaves of others bloggers, many of them, like us, introverts. (Judging from the interest in Rauch's article, a fair number of bloggers must have a preference toward introversion.)
Then, feeling a bit cocky, we print out the articlem photocopy it, and distribute the copies to our extroverted co-workers. (Or if we're extremely introverted, we may just leave them in their inboxes, perhaps with a note attached.)
But do they read the article? Oh, some may skim the essay and nod cordially. But before you know it they're distracted by the latest office small talk, and off they go again.
As Rauch explains:
Extroverts have little or no grasp of introversion. They assume that company, especially their own, is always welcome. They cannot imagine why someone would need to be alone; indeed, they often take umbrage at the suggestion. As often as I have tried to explain the matter to extroverts, I have never sensed that any of them really understood. They listen for a moment and then go back to barking and yipping.
Here! Here!
What other bloggers are saying about the introvert meme:
"As a minister, being an introvert is hard. I loved pastoring on Sundays, but after -- I just wanted to be alone, not go out for lunch at Denny's." - Tim Bednar of e-Church (full comments here). Tim, like me, is an INTP but apparently much more introverted than I. I'll eat at Denny's any old time.
"[T]he article could have possibly been intended to be more along the lines of being some sort of a clever ruse or otherwise a back handed critique by its author." - Morgan W. Brown, who posts a lot more introspective stuff, and questions, about this article at his NorseHorse site, Feb. 27 (no permalink; you've got to scroll down).
"I spend 75% of my hours by myself but I am not sure if it is introversion or the situationally induced hermit-dom. I like socializing, I just don't have the opportunity to do it all that often. I suppose I would have to become a butterfly in order to determine if I still need some 'alone time'." - This Boy Is Toast (here's his permalink)
"Most often I feel like I'm the only introvert I know. Everyone else seems to default to an outgoing social orientation. I can't think of many others, if there are any I know, for whom the most natural state of being is alone. Alone is when I'm myself. Alone is when I gather my strength toward my center (indeed the only time I know where it is). I don't need to be around other people all or even most of the time. I actually have a high requirement for "downtime" that I can spend alone, processing, writing, reading, thinking, recovering from the sensory assault of the day and integrating the social interactions I've had into my memory in a way that yields meaning. Digesting my life, if you will." - Just part of a very long post at ManiaHill (warning: post includes profanity)
Winning headline: we're here, we're not particularly loud, get used to it - from Pudding Time (scroll to February 26 entry)
:: Andrew 15:10 + ::
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I'm on the radio
Hear me live from 9-10 a.m. (Central) today as I shill for our local NPR affiliate, KUMR. So listen up!. And if you've got some spare funds and want to help support a small-market radio station in the Ozarks, consider submitting a pledge online.
:: Andrew 08:19 + ::
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Throw 'em a bone
John O'Keefe (aka punk monkey) is now accepting comments on his weblog. About time, I say.
Holy Weblog! has had a comments for on that site for a long time, but for some reason readers rarely comment. I don't understand why. So I'm taking it upon myself today to urge you to visit Holy Weblog! and leave a comment. She gives us many morsels on which to comment.
:: Andrew 08:16 + ::
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:: Monday, March 03, 2003 ::
Lectio divina, part deux
Psalm 5:1-3
Give ear to my words, O LORD,
consider my sighing.
Listen to my cry for help,
my King and my God,
for to you I pray.
In the morning, O LORD, you hear my voice;
in the morning I lay my requests before you
and wait in expectation.
I opened the book this morning intent on continuing a linear reading of the Psalms. Yesterday was Psalm 1, ergo today would be Psalm 2. But Psalm 5 caught my attention and wouldn't let go. A key to lectio divina is being attentive to the still, small voice -- the insistent, persistent little whisper in the soul. So I went to Psalm 5, focusing on the first three verses. It seems God waas interested in my learning a bit about morning prayer this morning.
The conversion continues.
:: Andrew 08:00 + ::
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:: Saturday, March 01, 2003 ::
My Lenten discipline: lectio divina
Maybe it's the Lenten season doing this to me, although I've never been much into Lent. (Too much giving up stuff -- too much mortification of the flesh.) Or maybe I, like Alan Creech, am growing nostalgic for the comfort and familiarity of catholicism. But more than that, I think it's that 17-plus years of happy-clappy charismatic Christianity is starting to wear a bit thin. I'm craving a connection with the ancient church. I'm craving that connection, knowing that I'm a part of a tradition, for better or for worse. So toward that end, I've decided to engage in an ancient spiritual discipline called lectio divina, a method of praying the Scriptures that is slow and contemplative. It is requiring me to be still, in hopes of hearing God's voice more clearly as He speaks through Scripture.
Yesterday morning, and again this morning, I focused on Psalm 1, and in particular the first two verses:
Blessed is the man
who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
or stand in the way of sinners
or sit in the seat of mockers.
But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
Yesterday morning, I focused on verse 2, particularly: on his law he meditates day and night. And then, it happened: that still small inner voice, referring me to another piece of Scripture: The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. I spent much of the day ruminating on these marvelous ideas -- the law of God, its power to convert the soul. The NIV says "reviving" the soul, but the notion of being continuously, inwardly converted by the law of God is more appealing than the thought of being revived (perhaps my rebellion against the evangelical ideas of the past 17-plus years is cropping up again, but I'm not in the mood for a "Holy Ghost Revival" of my soul today).
The idea of "conversion" as a process is foreign to many of us in American churchianity. We've been taught that conversion is an instantaneous event. But I'm thinking that the Psalms teach otherwise.
This morning, I again turned to those two Psalms -- 1 and 19 -- in hopes of a repeat performance from the still, small voice. Isn't that just like me? Do it again, God! That felt soooo good yesterday! Only this time, a little lower and to the right.
But the inner voice wasn't there. Or if it was, it was squelched by the press of life -- it is Monday, after all -- which seemed to pound insistently against the floodgates of my soul this morning, even as I was maintaining a stillness, a silence, a meditative, reflective stance of contemplation toward the Scriptures that are able to convert my soul. But perhaps part of this conversion is the silence of God. At least I was trying to be still and hear the voice of God. That is perhaps a step closer toward conversion.
:: Andrew 10:37 + ::
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Saturday morning procrastination
I did finish my first eMinistry newsletter in two months yesterday, so I'm rewarding myself with a bit of blog-surfing this morning. Meanwhile, looming are a few other projects I've promised myself to deal with today -- polishing up a brief satire/essay, grading papers, watching the Mizzou Tigers play hoops this afternoon -- so I'll have to keep it brief.
Here's a sampling of what's catching my eye today:
David Hopkins' collection of Jesus figurines reminds me of that classic tune, "Plastic Jesus". Excerpt:
I don't care if it rains of freezes
'Long as I got my Plastic Jesus
Riding on the dashboard of my car.
Through my trials and tribulations
And my travels through the nations
With my Plastic Jesus I'll go far.
Plastic Jesus! Plastic Jesus,
Riding on the dashboard of my car...
Plastic Jesus shelters me,
For His head comes off, you see
He's hollow, and I use Him for a flask.
Plastic Jesus! Plastic Jesus,
Riding on the dashboard of my car ...
Ride with me and have a dram
Of the blood of the Lamb -
Plastic Jesus is a holy bar.
Author Douglas Rushkoff (whose book Coercion should be required reading for anyone concerned about consumerist culture) posts his introduction to a new book about raves and religion. In it, he explains how he lost his journalist objectivity during his early chronicling of rave culture, moving from dispassionate observer to active participant. An excerpt:
There was no way for me to emerge from the experience of rave, however, without becoming both its chronicler and its propagandist. This is your brain on journalism; this is your brain after being dipped into the rave phenomenon. My work of that period is probably more valuable as an example of what people wrote like when they were experiencing the rave reality than what may have actually happened. Or what it was really about. After I was done with my 'non-fiction' book about this culture, I wrote a fictitious novel that was entirely more accurate. ...
If it really is a religion, then I suppose rave is over in some respects. For once it can be catalogued and comprehended, is it still a spiritual experience capable of breaking the boundaries between self and everything else? Perhaps not.
Audio Adrenaline goes against the grain. At a time many Christian rock bands are trying to shed their identity, Audio A is pushing its fans toward overt evangelism. "The worship movement has been huge all over the world, but it shouldn't stop in our church," said Tyler Burkum, lead guitarist for Audio A. "Let's go into this world and worship with our lives." Link via ChristianityToday weblog.
Meanwhile, Delirious? front man Martrin Smith charges contemporary Christian music (CCM) with being "uncreative, money-minded, and dated". He says: "I think it's okay for there to be a Christian music industry because it is led by people who have skills and insight in knowing how to service people that want this sort of music. If you were to run a record label focused on the r&b scene, you need people that are gifted to resource that scene. I think the future is that the lines will become more blurred between the different factions and that there will be more "crossing over" between the scenes and this can only be a good thing." Link via Rockrebel.com.
Losing our religion...gaining our spirituality
Tim Bednar of e-Church posts about a recent Gallup Poll finding that Americans are moving more and more toward syncretism. "We are living in a society that accepts, even seeks spirituality as long as it is undefined," says Bednar. He also provides some links to related topics. Here's one he missed that probably summarizes the state of the spiritual union in the USA, at least among those of us who claim to be Christians: George Barna's seven paradoxes of American faith.
I -- along with many others -- have written extensively about smorgasbord spirituality. Here's an excerpt on that subject from eMinistry:
Many young people today approach spirituality much as they would a buffet. ... Even churchgoing kids are drawn to this mix-and-match spirituality. Mike, a seventeen-year-old from upstate New York who frequently chats about religion with friends on the Internet, says he is "supposed to be a Roman Catholic, and a good one at that." He attends church regularly and is president of the youth group. But he questions the church's teachings on creation, heaven and hell, and other topics, and concludes, "Not only do I not believe that strongly in my own religion, but I can't even come up with a clear definition of 'My religion.'" His online friends "are also completely unsure about religion," he writes in an e-mail message. "Chicorina says, 'catholic with buddhist tendancies' Jester says, 'everything, and yet nothing,' and Yajba is just confused. So there you go. (eMinistry, pp. 71-72).
My blatant self-promotion for the day is over. Read on.
Bene Diction posts some interesting thoughts about Canada's growing anti-Americanism and even likens it to anit-semitism. It's one thing for a U.S. citizen to say that, but quite another for a Canadian. Thanks, Bene. *polite applause*
Today's e-mail from Bruderhof:
The needs of the world are too great, the suffering and pain too extensive, the lures of the world too seductive for us to begin to change the world unless we are changed, unless conversion of life and morals becomes our pattern. The status quo is too alluring. It is the air we breathe, the food we eat, the six-thirty news, our institutions, theologies, and politics. The only way we shall break its hold on us is to be transferred to another dominion, to be cut loose from our old certainties, to be thrust under the flood and then pulled forth fresh and new-born. Baptism takes us there. -- William Willemon, "Repent"
Well, the envoy to Iraq didn't work. So he's trying another tact. Pope to send envoy to U.S. in hopes of averting war in Iraq. According to the report, "The Vatican does not believe an attack on Iraq could be considered a 'just war,' opposes United Nations economic sanctions against Iraq and argues that diplomacy is the only way to settle the dispute." Link via Holy Weblog!
Rant this way -- a wonderful example of how to rant, via Fat Blue Man, whose site is sporting a cleaner look these days.
The troubling truth about Africa's AIDS crisis, via Gideon Strauss. What can I add? Simply to repeat Gideon's closing request: Pray.
:: Andrew 11:35 + ::
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Simon Dawes, 
