Category: reflections

Re: Pursuing relevance

I was skimming through Blue Like Jazz again tonight and came across this from Donald Miller, thought it fit the previous post:

I don’t think any church has ever been relevant to culture, to the human struggle, unless it believed in Jesus and the power of His Gospel. If the supposed new church believes in trendy music and cool web pages, then it is not relevant to culture either. It is just another tool of Satan to get people to be passionate about nothing.

And one other thought on a slightly different topic:

Andrew would say that dying for something is easy because it is associated with glory. Living for something, Andrew would say is the hard thing. Living for something extends beyond fashion, glory, or recognition. We live for what we believe.

Pursuing relevance

Relevant Magazine has an interesting piece online from Jason Johnson about relevance and what it means in today’s church.

Relevance. It has become the ecclesiological buzz-word of the postmodern culture. The church spends large amounts of time, energy and money on this idea of relevance, and Christians themselves are doing everything they possibly can to feel like—in some part—this term is an identifying mark on who they are as followers of Christ. This idea of relevance is admirable and necessary. But as I look around and evaluate my own attitudes toward this culture and understandings of how the Church relates to it, I (first and foremost) might have it backwards.
I believe that on some levels the idea of relevance has been reduced to a formula of learning to speak the right lingo, dress the right way, be familiar with the right music and movies, be involved in the right causes, go to the right churches, hang out with the right people, eat the right foods, drink the right drinks, have the right hairstyle and, most importantly, be familiar with all of the most relevant leaders and thinkers of this postmodern/emergent generation.
Honestly, admit it, when you encounter someone who does not know who Rob Bell or Brian McLaren are, does it not surprise you just a bit?

This really got me:

The fact that we have to spend so much time trying to be relevant should tell us something. It is an indication that relevance is not something that happens naturally. That’s why we have to spend so much time manufacturing it according to the formula.

It’s true that people are looking to make their faith relevant. I believe non-believers want to see why the Christian faith and GOd should be relevant to them. But dressing a certain way, watching the right movies, drinking the right drinks doesn’t make you relevant.
If you’re trying to do that, it makes you a fake and a phony in my book. I think people are much more interested in authenticity than relevance.
My dad may not be the most stylish man on the block. He may not know a thing about the latest trends but people can look at him and see true, authentic faith. And they’re drawn to that.

His faith is real and constant. In the midst of trials and tribulations he remains faithful and he continues to tell others and share with others about how God has remained faithful to him.
If we’re true to ourselves, God and others, our faith becomes relevant — regardless of whether or not we listen to U2, Cold Play or the Gaither Vocal Band.
The idea of relevance also brings to mind many episodes of “What Not To Wear.” (I know – I’ve watched it. Are you shocked? Laurie’s a huge fan.)
The image of relevance brings one picture to mind. The thirty-something mother who’s trying to dress hip for her kids or her kids’ friends.
“No. It looks bad!”
Why? Because you’re trying to be something you’re not. You’re 36 years old and trying to pull off a mini-skirt.
If wearing Mossimo or Stussy isn’t you then wearing it isn’t going to draw people to you or to Christ.
Paul said, “I have become all things to all men so that I might win some to Christ.” But I don’t think Paul was going around, hanging out with the Romans, wearing a Toga just so he could fit in.
When I’ve gone to Austin Street to minister to the homeless, they’re not expecting me to show up in torn dirty clothes and sleep on the streets with them. They want to see that I’m authentic with them. I don’t try to hide that I live in Waxahachie. I don’t try to hide that I have fairly decent clothes. They don’t care. They’re excited to see that my faith has made an impact in my life and it can make an impact in their lives too.
Johnson ends with this:

Wear the torn and tattered jeans, listen to the indie-pop music, read the most current authors, even buy a Mac if you want—but never substitute those things as what it truly means to be relevant. Relevance is found only through the inevitable expressions of a heart that is pursuing the greatest of all causes.

Weekend changes

Well, as you may remember, my life and I were planning on going camping Friday night after attending the wedding of our friends Josh McDonald and Amy Wade.

I got to show off my new clothes. As you can see in the photo, I still have a habit of leaning or slouching down when I’m standing next to Laurie. I’m hoping I didn’t do that in our wedding photos. We’re still waiting to get those back.

While we were at the wedding reception in downtown Dallas at the Trammel Crow building, we received a call from Dollye saying, “There’s a tornado watch and a thunderstorm warning. They’re expecting 70 mile an hour winds and we don’t think our tent will hold up.” Needless to say, they began packing up to head home.

So we opted out of heading north and decided to head south and home afterwards. The storms hit around 1 a.m., about the time we were falling asleep.
With no other plans for the weekend we took it easy Saturday and visited our parents, went to an Army Supply store for some Geocaching goodies, ate an early dinner at El Fenix (Mmm) and picked up the Pres-i-nator from Laurie’s parents.
We came home and drove around the Waxahachie area before retiring for the night. We’re planning to hide several Geocaches in the area so we drove around to scout out a few ideas.
I decided to sleep in Sunday morning and not help the set-up crew at encounter since they weren’t expecting me. It was a nice change.
Sunday was another relaxing day as we (I really mean she) took care of some laundry and we visited Brian & Heather and other encounter folks for an anniversary shower at their house.
Now we just have to figure out a time we can go camping again before it gets too unbelievably hot, or too cold again.

See some other photos from the wedding.

Good news for Sally

Got a call from Jose tonight, the doctors have given Sally the OK to go home.
They are now just waiting for several machines to arrive at their house to aid Sally in her recovery.
In case you didn’t follow along, it was discovered on Mother’s Day that Sally had AVM and had to be rushed to Baylor Dallas and ended up having an emergency eight hour surgery to fix the blood vessels going to her brain as well as remove a blood clot that had formed.
After the surgery, the doctors said the surgery was a success but she would likely lose all eyesight in her left eye.
Two days later she was doing much better and seeing out of both eyes. But Monday of last week the doctors realized she was having trouble breathing and had to give her a tracheotomy to allow her to breathe after scar tissue formed in her throat from the vent she was on during and after surgery.
Now a little more than two weeks later, Sally is ready to come home. Praise God! She will likely need to have an additional surgery to remove the scar tissue, but the doctors are saying she might heal on her own without the surgery.
Her vision is still somewhat blurry but the doctors are now saying it will likely fully recover.
Another praise is that Jose and Sally have no health insurance – but according to Jose, praise God because someone through the hospital has promised the family they will take care of all the costs of the surgeries, hospital stay, medicines, machines and meds at home and anything Sally needs.
What an amazing God! What a way to make himself real to this family and our church.
What a mighty God we serve.
Please continue to keep the Perez family in your prayers. There are sure to be other needs as both Sally and Jose have been out of work the last two weeks.
Thanks again for all your prayers – God has heard them.

Memorial Day events

Well its been a nice relaxing Memorial Day around Casa de Blundell.
I do believe this is the first time Laurie and I have had the holiday off since we finished school.
We slept in till around 10ish.
Lazied around the house till around 1ish, watching the “Little People, Big World” marathon.
Then around 1 we made our way over to Ennis where Laurie’s great-grandparents and grandparents lived.
We found the spot where her great-grandfather Charles Mosshart had his men’s clothing store.
It’s now a taxidermist and what looks like a variety/antique/women’s/tourist trap store. Neither were open so we didn’t get to go in and have a look around. Outside there’s not much left of the Mosshart clothing store other than a large “M” that’s still carved in the stone above the doors of each store.

The taxidermist left the M there and the women’s store had it painted over with bluebonnets.


After our stop in downtown Ennis we visited the Crape Myrtle cemetery where both her grandparents and great-grandparents are buried.
We then made our way to Chick-fil-A. Mmmm. Always a good stop, anytime of day – especially when you haven’t been there in over a month (what’s going on!?).
We wrapped up our errands with a trip to HEB to fill our weekly shopping list and then did a quick park-and-grab geocache by the local Boy Scout Cabin.
Now we’re back home, Presley’s cuddled up on her blanket next to Laurie and her iBook. I’m across the coffee table with my Gateway laptop and we’re settling in.
We’re watching more of the “Little People, Big World” marathon that we TiVo’d. And before the night’s end I’m sure we’ll try out our bottle of homemade cream soda.

*EDIT* – oh and yes…. it was our first one month anniversary 😉