Category: faith

Dominion over all

A friend sent me a link to this article… Homeschoolers: Recapturing the Culture One Million Converts at a Time

I’ll admit, I haven’t finished reading it all the way through yet. I got sidetracked when I read this:

Every square inch of the planet is the Lord’s, and His people are expected to take dominion over all of it through inspiring leadership in every sector of society.

I have to ask:
Why didn’t Jesus encourage the disciples to run for office? Why didn’t He encourage them to stand up and fight the Roman soldiers when they came to arrest Him? Shouldn’t they have had dominion over that situation as well? Why didn’t He encourage them to stage mass protests in the street against the Roman authorities or even the Jewish authorities?

Why do we keep thinking we have to change all the laws so we can win? Why can’t we just live out our faith in such away that people will be drawn to Christ?

Oh well….. I digress. Guess I should try and finish reading the article before I start criticizing it….

Subversive Blogger Award

Subversive Blogger Award

My mate Thomas awarded me the Subversive Blogger Award yesterday.

The award was devised by his friend Jake Bouma from Des Moines. The idea behind the award is:

Subversive bloggers are unsatisfied with the status quo, whether in church, politics, economics or any other power-laden institution, and they are searching for (and blogging about) what is new (or a “return to”) – even though it may be labeled as sacrilege, dangerous, or subversive.

Thomas said of my site: I don’t get the politics posts (He is American) but I get his enthusiasm… big time… and love the whole “Orange Noise Radio” thing.

Along with Thomas, Jake awarded these other bloggers as well (whom I’ll have to get to know):

Thomas also awarded me and these bloggers (also whom I’ll have to get to know – other than Johnny Laird):

  • Pernell Goodyear > Truly inspirational bloke and Elton John fan.
  • Johnny Laird > Another chap I am honoured to know… whose honesty is a daily encouragement.
  • Matt Wilson > For keeping it real and getting his sleeves rolled up in Manchester and beyond.
  • Royzoner > For truly off-the-wall visuals and being an all-round good egg.

So in the spirit of the award and to encourage folks to keep on doing what they’re doing, I would like to give my own Subversive Blogger Award to:

  • Michael Robinson, who has so many thoughts he has to keep them on three different blogs. A man whom I admire for his insights, awareness and observations of the world around him – the good and the bad.
  • Brian Treadaway, who continues to excite me and challenge my faith, not only on Sunday mornings but on a “semi-daily” basis on the encounter blog.
  • Kevin Hendrix, and the folks at ChurchMarketingSucks, for frustrating, motivating and educating me on how to not suck at marketing and sharing my faith.
  • Brandi Manes, who keeps me entertained with her thoughts on life, living with a boy, life in Nashville, TN and who has always been against the status quo since we started working together on the school newspaper at UMHB.

If he hadn’t already been awarded, Thomas would also be first on my list. His reflections on faith and life challenge me and I’m really enjoying his blog as I read his thoughts and watch his progression as a Christian-socialist. I also love his insight into community and anti-consumerism (from someone who loves design).
From Thomas’ blog:

We should be just as ready to read devout simple blogs as deep and learned ones. You must not take offence at the writer’s lack of learning and question his authority, but read the blog from love of simple truth. Do not ask who it was who wrote it, but what it was he wrote. Men pass away but the Lord remains faithful to his word for ever. God uses all kinds of ways to speak to us, and he makes no distinction between man and man.
The Imitation of Christ by Thomas A Kempis

So that’s it. I probably should award a fifth blogger, but honestly I can’t think of another single blogger who motivates me or inspires me or challenges me like these others. So congratulations and thanks to the winners I’ve challenged. You really do make my day more enjoyable when I get a notice that you’ve added something to your blog.

The rules of participation are pretty straightforward:

1. If you are tagged, write a post with links to five subversive blogs
2. Link back to this post so people can easily find the origin of the meme
3. Optional: Proudly display the “Subversive Blogger Award” somewhere on your blog with a link to the post that you wrote (Please download the image and save it to your own server before posting it to your blog. That way everyone can save on their bandwidth. Jake has another image on his blog as well.)

That’s all there is to it. Keep in mind that this award is meant as an encouragement to bloggers to keep doing what they’re already doing – being subversive (however you interpret it). May we never forget that Jesus (and His message) was the original and ultimate subversive.

Is your church on YouTube?

I’ve been doing my best to post all the original videos our church does on YouTube and now on MetaCafe.
I posted a video showing the recent baptisms at encounter on MetaCafe and within the last week or so it’s already been viewed more than 650 times.
Today there was a very interesting comment on the video page:

didn’t actually get it
wat r they doin?wat does it mean encounter baptisms?

It got me thinking about several things.

  1. There are people out there that don’t understand our Christianeze (Christian lingo). It’s so easy to forget when we get caught in our Christian circles and bubbles that we forget the rest of the world doesn’t know what we’re talking about. If all we talk to is Christian people and only talk about Christian things, the outside world probably looks at us and can’t understand a thing we’re saying. Just like the American Life episode Pray talked about.
  2. I could have posted the video on GodTube. Sure, it’s a “Christian” video and GodTube is a “Christian web site” and “Christians who understand our lingo” use the website but who is that really reaching out to? If we keep retreating to our Christian ghettos then who in the world is going to tell mr bako or others what baptism is or why we do it?
  3. Video is a POWERFUL medium. I could blog about baptism all day long but my words are limited, seeing what baptism is in video form really shows people what it’s all about.
  4. Viral videos and Web 2.0 are even more POWERFUL. Within minutes and days of posting the baptism video on MetaCafe, the video was available on my blog, the encounter blog and it was being shared all over Myspace and e-mail. The families being represented were sharing the video with their friends and family members. And they were passing it along to more people and more people – hopefully moving outside the Christian ghetto.

It just makes me think and realize – we need to be producing more content that’s available to everyone and understandable to everyone. What are you and your church doing?

This American Life: Pray

I’m listening to This American Life, episode 77, Pray, from 2001.

Love this show. Listen to a 30-second promo.

From the show:

Can the secular world and the religious world understand each other? We ask that question while visiting Colorado Springs, Colorado, where Pastor Ted Haggard at the New Life Church has put in place a project to pray in front of the home of every person in the city, systematically, block by block and house by house. He’s also helped organize a 24-hour, 365-day-a-year “prayer shield” over the city; all-night prayer vigils; and more.

From Act 1:
Alix Spiegel talked with a former member of Haggard’s church at a porn store who left the church because of his homosexuality.
“There seems to be more spiritual love than this environment where there is only physical love… I am really torn between what i was brought up with and what I’m doing now.”
“To you personally, and to anyone else, I would not turn Jesus away just because of what Christians do. Jesus isn’t the bad guy.”

Well worth the listen.

The best campaign website

Zephyr Teachout, writes that “Mike Huckabee’s campaign has the most effective online operation of any of the candidates.”

I think there are a lot of things folks can learn from this in any organization – especially in ministry.
I think each of these areas are ones that churches, ministries and other political candidates and organizations can put into play.
Here’s the highlights:

  1. He has the best use of video in the year that YouTube matteres the most. He is the only candidate consistently–every day–sharing user-created videos on his blog.
  2. He has done minor blogger outreach since April, to great effect; the twice-a-month phone calls with Huckabee and bloggers (homeschoolers, godbloggers, anyone who wanted to sign up)
  3. His blog has typos. This is not in itself a good thing, but evidence of a good thing. A website is not a candidate, and it is not a flyer, but most people encounter websites more like they do an individual than they do a flyer–does it excude some authenticity, does it actually attempt to communicate, or does it try to shut down any conversation except “My candidate is the bees knees.”
  4. His website is not a Stepford Site. It has big buttons that are about making it easy for users, not slick presentation that are about making it impressive for the webteam.
  5. He encourages independent action. He encourages people to go to Meetup. He encourages the growth of Huck’s Army (a very active independent Huckabee forum).

“All of this has led to massive rise in traffic (now well above Clinton’s and Obama’s, only lower than Ron Paul’s). And like Ron Paul’s supporters’ use of the internet, it is helping him in the polls and in support around the country. Unlike Ron Paul, the “help” may lead to winning key states and the primary.”
In what areas could you improve your ministry website/blog by utilizing some of these tips?

Scientists create embryonic stem cells from skin

From NPR:
Two teams of scientists have independently discovered a way to turn ordinary human skins cells into stem cells with the same characteristics as those derived from human embryos, a breakthrough that could open the door for advanced medical therapies.
If the work holds true to its promise, it would largely bypass ethic issues that have dogged research on human embryonic stem cells and allow scientists to tailor the cells to specific individuals, eliminating the possibility of rejection.

In my opinion, if this works like they say, this is HUGE. Imagine having the use/power of stem cells for research without the ethical implications of destroying an embryo. Simply amazing. This could lead to so many things.

Listen to the story.