Category: faith

WIN :: Gardening Eden

The view from our family's farm in Nebraska (circa 2004)

I’m right in the middle of reading Gardening Eden by Michael Abbaté. It’s a great timely read – especially with Earth Day on Wednesday.

I’ve got an extra copy of the book, so as a thank you to folks who read this blog, I’m giving away a copy of the book on Friday afternoon. Read the synopsis and then find out how to win below…

Before the snake, the apple, and the Ten Commandments, God created a garden, placed humans in it, and told them to take care of it.

“Spiritual environmentalism” did not start out as an oxymoron—it was an invitation. Yet today, many believe God’s original job description for humankind has been replaced by other worthier pursuits. So when did this simple instruction become so controversial? How does one sort through all the mixed messages? Is making the world a healthier place for the next generation really a responsibility—or even possible?

Gardening Eden is a new understanding of how the spiritual dimensions of life can find expression and renewal through caring for our incredible planet. Empowering, simple, and never polemical, Michael Abbaté outlines the Bible’s clear spiritual benefits of caring for creation, exploring new motivations and inspired ideas, and revealing the power of our basic connection to all people and living things through the growing interest in spiritual environmentalism.

Green living is no longer a fad—simple lifestyle solutions are now available to everyone. Gardening Eden shows readers how this shift transforms not only our world, but their very souls as they’re drawn into deeper harmony with the Creator. This book invites them to discover the powerful spiritual satisfaction of heeding the call to save our world.

To win:
All you have to do to enter is leave a comment sharing what you think about “spiritual environmentalism.” It can be a short response, a long response, pro or negative, just so long as you share your thoughts in the comment below. This contest will go until Friday afternoon @ 5pm (my time) and then a winner will be randomly chosen.

Easy cheesy. So what are you waiting for?

Responding to e-mails

Every couple weeks or so I get e-mails from folks that often go against many things I believe.

I’m not sure why they send them to me. Perhaps they think I agree with them, or perhaps they’re hoping to sway me to their side.

And while I hate seeing those messages in my inbox, for some reason, I always feel like I have to respond, I need to respond — at least once. I know it won’t sway their opinion but for some reason I can’t bring myself to simply deleting them and ignoring them.

This morning I received another one of those e-mails.

Gun control

The e-mail was entitled “Why I carry a gun.” With a list of reasons for owning one mixed in with the following images attached:

Here’s my response to the e-mail. For regular readers of my blog, it may not be anything new. But what do you think? Do you respond to e-mail propaganda (from either side)? Do you simply hit delete?

I hope my responses never come across as accusatory or judgmental (I’m sure they may to those who view things differently). But what do you think?

It’s obvious we see this differently. But since you sent your thoughts, here are mine.

“I’m a pacifist because I’m a violent son of a bitch.” – Stanley Hauerwas

As a follower of Christ, I must embrace non-violence because I am, by nature, violent.

I am sinful so I must embrace virtue.

To be more specific…

I lust after women who are not my wife, so I must embrace monogamy.

I covet your cell phone and your neighborhood and your jeans, so I must embrace simplicity.

I lie to get a laugh or make my life easier, so I must embrace honesty.

I think I’m smarter than you, so I must embrace humility.

I need to be in control, so I must embrace submission.

I’m a loner, so I must embrace community.

I want to ruin your name, so I must embrace forgiveness.

I want to be served, so I must embrace service.

And I want to harm when I’m harmed, so I must embrace non-violence.

– Shaun Groves

And here’s a semi-related story told by Dr. Tony Campolo:

During World War II, a group of Bulgarian Jews are rounded up at a train station to be taken off to Auschwitz. Yet,despite Bulgaria’s alliance with Germany in World War II, the leader of the Orthodox church in Bulgaria comes walking up to a train station in the middle of the night. The leader of the church is followed by 300 members of his church.

He walks to the fenced in area where the Jews are being kept and the guards tell him, “Father you’re not allowed in there.” He laughs and brushes their machine guns aside as he walks into the gated area. The Jews gathered around him, waiting to see what the Christian leader in Bulgaria would say in their moment of despair.

As they cried and begged for help the leader of the Bulgarian church quoted a simple verse from Ruth.

Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. (Ruth 1:16)

The Jews cheered. The Christians outside the fenced in area cheered. The noise became so loud that it woke up everyone in the community and they came to the train station and heard the news. Quickly the hundreds grew to thousands.

The Nazi soldiers suddenly realized there was no way they could overcome everyone there. There was no way they’d be able to get away with carting off the Jews to the concentration camps. The train left a short time later with none of the Jews on board and never returned again. And after that point, no Jews from Bulgaria were taken to a concentration camp of any sort.

“Because the Church of Jesus Christ boldly stood up and said we’re not going to kill the enemy, we’re going to identify with the suffering and suffer with them. This is Jesus’ way.”

And finally,
With that, one of Jesus’ companions reached for his sword, drew it out and struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his ear.

“Put your sword back in its place,” Jesus said to him, “for all who draw the sword will die by the sword. Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?” – Matthew 26:51-54

Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.
 – Psalm 20:7

On the verge of something big

distributed christianity

Boy if there’s ever a week that things really seem to be aligning this might be it. Maybe it’s just my limited perspective.

I’m not sure where this post is going so bear with me.

More and more across our country – and around the world – groups are coming together to declare their independence. There’s a restlessness afoot. People are growing weary of institutions of all shapes and sizes.

And the Internet seems to be bringing many of these forces together in ways not seen before.

Just like the invention of the printing press – when suddenly every person could own a copy of Scripture, or the latest pamphlet or newspaper – now everyone can own those things, as well as create and distribute their own versions.

You’ve likely heard much said about how Obama should credit much of his success to his campaign’s use of new media and the Internet. And putting great tools like my.barackobama.com to use gave every Joe Democrat with a computer a voice and a platform to share it on.

People had grown tired of the institution/administration that was in place and they saw Obama as their savior (we’ll leave that up for later debate).

And now, on the other side of the aisle, tea parties or tea baggers (depending on which side you’re on) mounted protests around the country to declare they’re no longer interested in paying taxes that bailout Fortune 500 Countries or social welfare programs. They organized via the Internet and social networks with no clear leadership. They even refused the “professional politicians” opportunities to speak at the protest rallies.

When Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele asked to speak at the Chicago tea party, his request was politely refused by the organizers: “With regards to stage time, we respectfully must inform Chairman Steele that RNC officials are welcome to participate in the rally itself, but we prefer to limit stage time to those who are not elected officials, both in Government as well as political parties. This is an opportunity for Americans to speak, and elected officials to listen, not the other way around.” – WSJ

Alongside the tea parties, Gov. McDreamy jumped in and told folks he supports a bill that would lead Texas to succeed from the Union. Could be an interesting idea – as long as we don’t simply replace Washington D.C. with Austin, Texas.

(And BTW – I’m with Mike Morrell, in asking “Where were these folks during the last eight years when the government continued to rack up ginormous debt for a war in Iraq and took away our personal freedoms and securities in the name of ‘National Security?'” Why aren’t they also calling foul when we’re about to send another 30,000 troops to Afghanistan? But I digress…. be sure and read Mike’s great post on this topic as well.)

Today, I saw news about two new local Farmer’s Markets in the Dallas area. One is opening in Mockingbird Station, the other has already started in Oak Cliff.

And in that spirit, I also watched a trailer for Food Inc. That seems to discuss the institutionalizing of our food supply. (see also Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma)

Of course if you’ve followed this blog or my podcast for long you know I’m a fan of organic churches and the empowerment of the priesthood of believers.

I was told this week that a group of youth from our tribe discussed the future of the church during their weekly gathering and after dividing up into separate groups they each came back with very similar ideas…

  • small groups meeting in homes
  • no church buildings
  • very relational
  • reaching out to the community
  • “contemporary” music without the big band or production
  • elational music with one or two guitars

Sounds pretty anti-institutional to me. Love it! I hope they start seeing that as they move into “leadership positions.”

And this theme just continues to grow in more and more areas. It’s exciting and scary at the same time. I can’t wait to see where it all ends up. Something big is coming down the pipe. Are you ready?

What about you? Do you see other stories that line up with this realm of thinking? Do you think its a good course? Dangerous course? What side do you want to be standing on?

Lessons from Britain’s Got Talent

susan-boyle-pic-itv-113257880

Eugene Cho shares the story of Susan Boyle this week on his blog.

Susan’s a 47 year old charity worker, who’s never been kissed or on a date. She’s currently unemployed and her previous singing experience has been limited to the church choir and karaoke.

She was starved of oxygen at birth and has learning difficulties as a result. At school she was slow and had frizzy hair. She was bullied, mostly verbally. She told one newspaper that her classmates’ jibes left behind the kind of scars that don’t heal.

Yet she recently blew folks away with her performance on Britain’s Got Talent.

Eugene writes:

Notice the sneers, looks, judgments, and assumptions that nearly everyone makes – including the respective judges. The change of “perception” (judgment? -> wonder) in the faces of the judges – especially Simon Cowell – are a sight to see. And to be fair to them, I get it…

Why?

It’s pretty simple – she isn’t pretty. She doesn’t look the part. She doesn’t look like an entertainer. She doesn’t look charismatic. And so it begs the questions:

  • Why do we trust our perception and judgment so much?
  • Why are we so married to looks?
  • Why are we enamored and at times, fooled by “dress for success” or “look the part?” [Think of the film, Catch me if You Can…]
  • What is the balance?

How quickly do I cast out judgment based on a person’s dress, or look, or obnoxious laugh? How often do I throw a label on someone without looking at the whole package and hearing their story? I want to put people in a box and label them and define them by my standards – ignoring the person they are – ignoring that they are the Imago Dei.

Watch the video for yourself and then read the rest of Eugene’s post. Then share your thoughts below.

What lessons can you learn from Susan? What does her story tell you about God? Life? Yourself?

update: Vimeo took the original video down, here’s the full video from YouTube

But God told Samuel, “Looks aren’t everything. Don’t be impressed with his looks and stature. I’ve already eliminated him. God judges persons differently than humans do. Men and women look at the face; God looks into the heart.” – 1 Samuel 16:7

Kingdom (social) media done well

Wanted to highlight a few folks/groups that have really impressed me as of late in putting social media to great use for The Kingdom.

The first is Trinity Wall Street.

While their site itself is not full of social media tools – @headphonaught passed along a great way they’re telling the story of Jesus the Messiah today.

From noon to 3 p.m. today they twittered the entire passion story of Jesus’ last hours on the cross via GroupTweet.

friend

via @tc226: This man befriends prostitutes, washes the feet of the poor – surely he is not a King but a blasphemer.

and the part of the story I’ve been meditating on today…

curtain

via @ServingGirl: Darkness and earthquake. I heard the curtain in the temple was torn in two. I wonder…

If you missed the story/play visit their twitter stream and scroll back to follow the story from the beginning.

Next, Church in the Cliff, which is just north of me in Oak Cliff has launched their new site built around lots of great social media tools.

citc

The site itself is limited in wordy information. Other than the blog on the site, there’s only one other page on the site itself, a brief about us page.

The front page highlights their Flickr group, a tab/link to their Facebook group and one to their Twitter feed as well. They’re also using YouTube and a weekly Lifestream.

As a side note, Church in the Cliff has also come up with a great creative, transformative way to share God’s story this Resurrection season as well. They’ve put together an entire Stations of the Cross, using DART rail stations in Dallas. There’s a meditation guide on their site for folks and they’ll have their folks stationed at different areas to help add in the process. (although at the moment I can’t seem to find the PDF for downloading 🙁) .

Finally, I’d be amiss if I didn’t mention Mark Horvath (aka @hardlynormal and @invisiblepeople). We had Mark on our show a few weeks back. He’s putting social media to use in big ways, telling the stories of “invisible people” and the homeless and the media. Just look at his list of accounts:

So there are a few folks who are doing Kingdom (social) media well. Follow them, get inspiration and then find your own unique ways to tell God’s story.

Who else have you seen that’s putting social media to great use?

Los wonders

I wonder.
I wonder how many people, if we actually asked them, keep coming back to our churches because of our stellar Sunday productions.
I wonder if we ask the right people.
I wonder if we stopped, for a while, if people would keep coming.
I wonder if we turned off the lights and pulled the band if more people would come or go.
I wonder if we flipped the teaching time and music time, if it would matter.
I wonder if first time visitors are more concerned with what happens outside the auditorium than what happens inside it.
I wonder if the things we’ve rebelled against are the exact things we’ve become.
I wonder if church buildings will ever be used more than 2% a week.
I wonder if there has been more energy put into our Easter weekend services than our neighbors on the left and right.

I wonder with all the talk of social justice, why those friends keep walking by homeless people without even a smile.
I wonder when we will stop arguing about how to run the church and begin to start running our families.
I wonder how disrespected my dad feels by my generation of preachers saying his way is the wrong way.
I wonder how disrespected my generation of preachers will feel when our kids say our way is the wrong way.
I wonder when church envy will be replaced with prayer for others to succeed.
I wonder if churches without buildings will ever realize how good they have it.
I wonder when church planting became an industry.
I wonder if we know that our opinions are just that, opinions.
I wonder if those who say my church is an inch deep and a mile wide know that they would actually drown in the inch we provide.

Excellent. I join him.