Author: Jonathan Blundell

I'm a husband, father of three, blogger, podcaster, author and media geek who is hoping to live a simple life and follow The Way.

re: Church Basement Roadshow

Jim Palmer has a good review of the Church Basement Roadshow in the latest edition of Next-Wave.

From Jim’s article:

Tony Jones, Doug Pagitt, and Mark Scandrette led the event, which combined an “old time gospel revival” setting with a different kind of message that invited people to imagine a Christianity that was more anchored in the life and message of Jesus.

From what i heard and saw last night, a person who may be drawn to this expression of Christianity would be a person who:

  • feels like they don’t fit or benefit by the “traditional/cultural” forms, practices, and expressions of Christianity, and have an aversion to the “one size fits all” mindset.
  • can’t relate to a mental/heady Christianity but are prone to the idea of a new way of life based on the values of Jesus.
  • doesn’t thrive in the typical systems and infrastructures of organized church.
  • feels marginalized in the typical Christian class system of professionals (pastors, church staff) and amateurs (”lay” people), and desire to be empowered.
  • desires relationships of love and acceptance, where hard questions can be asked and explored without fear of rejection.
  • thrives in the freedom of creative expression, and imagines Jesus more as a revolutionary who lives on the street in solidarity with marginal peoples, as opposed to a politician wielding power from an air-conditioned high-rise office.

related ::
Church Basement Roadshow
SSL :: soul graffiti – experiments in truth
SSL :: church basement roadshow (video of the event)

Quote of the day

Jesus didn’t say, “I was in prison and you wrote a book for me, I was naked and you complained on your blog about the church’s failure to clothe me, I was sick and you raised money for your salaries using a picture of me,” and so on.

– Brian McLaren
HT: Duncan McFadzean

Unforced rhythms

“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”

Matthew 11:28-30

HT to Headphonaught

What a great image of God and Jesus.

“Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.”

I remember in elementary school I was in the band. I played snare drum simply because I couldn’t play a wind or brass instrument thanks to my orthodontist work. When I first started out, I had to force the rhythm at times. I had to work on getting it right. But as I became familiar with the song and the drum, it became easier. Suddenly it wasn’t forced. It was natural.

The same happened when I took piano lessons. The more I did it, the less forced it was. The more natural it became. Now years later, it’s a real effort for me to sit and read music. There are a few songs that still come naturally to me – but don’t ask me to read the music for it – I’ll be lost in an instant. It’s because I’m out of practice and now what may have been unforced rhythm takes a lot of effort.

Throughout life I see this pattern over and over again.

Imagine grace becoming such a thing we’re so used to giving and receiving that it just comes natural. It’s just a natural rhythm of life. It isn’t a pain to give when asked. It isn’t a forced effort to smile at someone we’re not particularly found of. It isn’t unusual to accept the unacceptable or the unloved.

When grace becomes an unforced rhythm of life – suddenly we love those who least expect it and love those who lease deserve it.

Imagine what would happen if grace became an unforced rhythm of life just as music was to Evan in the movie August Rush? What if it just flowed from us each and every day?

140 characters of prayer

I feel like I’ve been sending a lot of prayer–related txt messages and tweets lately. Absolutely nothing wrong with that. I actually have only heard positive things from folks getting them (however please let me know if you’d rather not receive them).

I’ve found that txt messages, Twitter and e-mail have turned the traditional “prayer chain” into a rapid fire prayer blast. Within seconds/minutes folks all around the world can be updated with the latest prayer needs.

I’ve used txt messaging and e-mail for some time now. And with my new phone I love the ability to assign folks to message groups so I’m not selecting multiple people each and every time I send a message out.

But I have to wonder if there’s still yet a better way to send out rapid-fire prayer needs/requests. If more folks signed up to Twitter it could really become an informational network where folks could chose to receive updates via the web or txt messages. Perhaps an alternative Twitter feed could be setup just for prayer requests/alerts.

I wonder what it would take to build a system for churches or ministries where prayer alerts could be entered into a system and a message would be sent to Twitter, Plurk (get the most responses from Plurk), Jaiku, etc feeds (140 characters max of course), sent to those requesting cell phone updates, and then a longer more detailed message could also go directly to an RSS feed that could be subscribed to via traditional RSS readers and or e-mail.

Ultimately folks could subsubscribe, unsubscribe and also choose how to receive the prayer alerts.

Is this asking too much? Am I over thinking this? Is it already there? I bet with a little planning a system could be built using WordPress and a couple different plugins.

Hmmm…. could lead to some great possibilities.

What do you prefer? How is your church spreading news/announcements/prayer requests? Still using traditional mediums like bulletins, announcements and prayer chains? Are you on the “cutting edge” and using txt messages, or RSS?

Share you thoughts and ideas!

related ::
my twitter feed
10 best twitter tools for wordpress
SSL :: twitter in plain english
SSL :: twitter peeps
SSL :: texting in church
SSL :: twittering in the old testament
SSL :: texting the church
twitter your testimony

Focus on the Family prays for a blessing on Obama

http://flickr.com/photos/publik18/2549501861/

Church Marketing Sucks reports that the political arm of Focus on the Family, Focus on the Family Action (a registered 501-C4), is asking folks to pray for rain during Obama’s acceptance speech in Denver.

While rain sounds like a horrible way to kick off a campaign, a co-worker suggests that she’s always heard that rain is a blessing. After a dry spell here in North Texas – I can definitely say that today’s rain is a blessing.

When you think about it, how often do we sing songs and read Scripture where folks praying for God’s blessings to flow like rain?

Even the Hebrew Talmud says, “The day when rain falls is as great as the day on which heaven and earth were created.”

Perhaps Focus on the Family is praying for something they may not really want.

Of course – I’ve found that true in my life as well so many other times :-).

What other ways/times have you found rain to be a blessing?

related ::
Church Marketing Sucks :: Praying for Rain on Obama & Saying No to Money
KOAA.com :: man prays for rain
Focus on the Family
Focus on the Family Action
My Jewish Learning :: Rain as a Blessing