Category: faith

Does it matter?

My friend Briana sent this to me this evening relating to my message yesterday.

Had to share it here. Not exactly sure of the origin or author. If you know, please feel free to share so I can give credit.

I was hungry and you formed a humanities club to discuss my hunger.

Thank you.

I was imprisoned and you crept off quietly to your chapel to pray for my release.

Nice.

I was naked and in your mind you debated the morality of my appearance.

What good did that do?

I was sick and you knelt and thanked God for your health.

But I needed you.

I was homeless and you preached to me of the shelter of the love of God.

I wish you’d have taken me home.

I was lonely and you left me alone to pray for me.

Why didn’t you stay?

You seem so holy, so close to God; but I’m still very hungry, lonely, cold, still in pain.

Does it matter?

A day of fasting

This is the kind of fast day I’m after:
to break the chains of injustice,
get rid of exploitation in the workplace,
free the oppressed,
cancel debts.
What I’m interested in seeing you do is:
sharing your food with the hungry,
inviting the homeless poor into your homes,
putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad,
being available to your own families.
Do this and the lights will turn on,
and your lives will turn around at once.
Your righteousness will pave your way.
The God of glory will secure your passage.
Then when you pray, God will answer.
You’ll call out for help and I’ll say, ‘Here I am.’

Isaiah 55:6-9

For those interested or curious, you can listen to the message I shared with my tribe yesterday.

Rethinking church

Neil Cole writes ::

We must transition from seeing church as a once-a-week worship event to an ongoing spiritual family on mission together. Then people will see church as something worth giving your life for. Honestly, people need one another more then they need another inspiring message. You would be surprised what people will do for Jesus, or for a brother or sister, that they will not do for a vision statement and a capital giving campaign.

(HT @emergentvillage)

What would you tell Obama?

Sojourners is asking folks, “What would you tell president-elect Obama if you had a chance meeting with him?”

…with rumors flying about the details of the Obamas’ impending move to the capital, Obama sightings may become none too rare for locals, forcing all D.C. residents to wonder, if given a fleeting audience with the president, what would I say?

We’ve had the experts and notables in the Sojourners network weigh in with their memos to Obama (which I am excited for you all to read in full in the upcoming issue of Sojourners magazine), but truthfully, I am more curious to see what average Americans wish to tell the man on whom so much is riding these days, because to me it seems that our collective hopes, fears, dreams, and requests need to be heard in this time of change, so we never forget the felt needs of Americans today.

They only ask that you send it as a picture – like so ::

Or like so ::

So, what would you tell the president elect? Post your photo on your blog and share the link in the comments below or via twitter or somewhere we can all see it. And of course, while you’re at it – send a copy of it to interact@sojo.net as well.

I’ll try and post mine later tonight.

Seth Godin talks church

Marketing guru Seth Godin gave an interview to StreamingFaith.com. They naturally talked church and social media/marketing ::

Faith matters. A lot. Religion often gets in the way of faith. Religion, the scolding, rules-based part of religion, the part used as a lever in life or politics to insist that people follow a certain person or a certain idea… that’s not spreading so fast online.

But faith, faith is the salve we’ve always wanted and still want. Barack Obama offers a lot of people a different kind of faith, and we can see how it resonates. People want to believe, they want to be surrounded by people who believe and they want to feel good about it. What an opportunity.

(HT @stewartcutler – btw you can hear @stewartcutler and @headphonaught chat about advent on this week’s @sbpodcast)

i am second

I saw an interesting billboard on the way to work today. Very simple black and white photo of a guy with dread locks and the words “i am second” and “iamsecond.com“.

Checked it out when I got to work. Great quality site with some great content.

Check it out. What do you think? What would your story be?