Tag: God

you matter!

sculpture

Seth Godin shares ::

  • When you love the work you do and the people you do it with, you matter.
  • When you are so gracious and generous and aware that you think of other people before yourself, you matter.
  • When you leave the world a better place than you found it, you matter.
  • When you continue to raise the bar on what you do and how you do it, you matter.
  • When you teach and forgive and teach more before you rush to judge and demean, you matter.
  • When you touch the people in your life through your actions (and your words), you matter.
  • When kids grow up wanting to be you, you matter.
  • When you see the world as it is, but insist on making it more like it could be, you matter.
  • When you inspire a Nobel prize winner or a slum dweller, you matter.
  • When the room brightens when you walk in, you matter.
  • And when the legacy you leave behind lasts for hours, days or a lifetime, you matter.

Continue reading you matter!

Transforming Theology

Tripp Fuller, Tony Jones and a whole list of of other folks are taking off on a pretty interesting journey.

I’m playing catchup after a week off but as I’ve briefly gathered, there will be a conference in mid-March as well as several others throughout the year.

Briefly, “The mission of the Transforming Theology network is to tighten the bonds between theology and transformative action in the church and the world.”

Transforming Theology Mission ::

Our goal is an ambitious one: to create the intellectual framework for a progressive religious vision. By forming a broad alliance between the leading scholars and organizations in Christian religion today, we aim at nothing less than to “reclaim the progressive voice.” There are movements on the ground, active in various denominations and schools. Up to this point, however, what has been missing is a uniting intellectual and theoretical vision, comparable to what has emerged from the conservatives…

Beliefs orient communities; they create a sense of common cause; and frequently they motivate persons to sacrificial action. Motivating beliefs of this sort go by many names. They have been called ethical principles, rationales for action, ideologies, and worldviews. In the three Abrahamic traditions they are called “theologies”: beliefs about the world and the religious ultimate that suggest how one should live in the world. In order to guarantee that our project remains pluralistic and non-partisan, we will speak only of “theological models.” We claim that the loss of theological reflection represents a major crisis for the identity of religious communities and for their effectiveness as agents of social change, and we believe that concrete steps can be taken to reintroduce transformative reflection that leads to transformative action. We focus on Christianity, not because it is “truer” than other traditions, but because it is the tradition we know best and on which we can have the greatest influence. Thus our title: “Rekindling Theological Reflection: Transformative Thought for Progressive Action.”

The goal is not to talk about beliefs for belief’s sake. Yet religious beliefs will undeniably play a crucial role if progressive religion is again to impact the world on behalf of social change. The goal is not theory for theory’s sake. But some theoretical framing is required if progressive forces are to have the vision and the sustained commitment to move forward. In the past, progressive religion in America was able to move fluidly from theological models to transformative action, and from praxis in the world to new and richer theological models. We believe it is time to rekindle the organic interplay of religious thought and action. Renewing the justification for action will have general impact on local congregations, denominations, and a variety of progressive networks focusing on social change.

There’s a number of videos and blog posts over on the site and they’re also looking for your input.

In fact, Tripp and Tony are looking for your most pressing ‘God’ question to ask the gathered theologians in March. You can submit them via the comments section on the blog, email, youtube, etc.

And they’re even awarding the most active participants, including a travel stipend to be a special corespondent at a conference in September 09.

So, what is your most pressing ‘God question?’ Share it here and over at Transformingtheology.org.

Heather’s story

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I’d love to share this story at some point as part of our actual podcast but I figure — why wait? It’s already out there for everyone to listen to, download, listen, share it and talk about it. It’s worth it.

Pastor Ryan shares ::

Our God is a God of Justice and I believe once we understand that, we will no longer be okay with the things that aren’t okay…

…Another thing that’s been pressing on me lately is just how relentless God is. He wants us and He will stop at nothing to reach us. So often our arms are jammed so tightly into our sides that we won’t let Him embrace us, but He doesn’t quit. He doesn’t give up on us. Ever.

That was evident with Heather’s story as she shared it with our body last weekend.

Download the Mp3 file

[audio:http://www.vineyardwestside.com/podcasts/HeatherStory.mp3]

God’s dinner party

dinner

God, who gets invited to dinner at your place? How do we get on your guest list?

“Walk straight, act right, tell the truth.
Don’t hurt your friend, don’t blame your neighbor; despise the despicable.
Keep your word even when it costs you, make an honest living, never take a bribe.
You’ll never get blacklisted if you live like this.”

(Psalm 15)

The Wanderer

Bono

Back in the early 1990’s my friends turned me on to the music of U2. It was right before the release of their album Achtung Baby. In fact the first CD I ever bought was U2’s One single, followed soon by the Achtung Baby album.

As I came to learn more and more about the band I was even more intrigued by the suggestions that they might be a “Christian band.” The continual argument against their “conversion” was the rock lifestyle they led and the fact that they wrote and sang lyrics that often talked just as much about doubting their faith as accepting what God was doing in the world around them.

I’ve come to see more and more that perhaps that’s also what attracts many people (and me more and more) to their music – they’re real, authentic and don’t claim to have it all figured out.

@U2 shared a list of U2’s Top 10 Spiritual Songs last month.

The list included ::

Tomorrow
Drowning Man
The Wanderer
Love Rescue Me
The Playboy Mansion
Wake Up Dead Man
Mercy
Yahweh
I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For
40

I’m glad they included “Wake Up Dead Man” on the list. The first time I heard that song I thought perhaps Bono and U2 had given up on any faith they might have had. But then I came to see it as real, raw, honest seeking of God.

@U2 writes ::

Bitter, enraged and at times desperate, the final song on the Pop album is a fierce antidote to any rose-tinted view of the spiritual life. Bono states his predicament bluntly and uncompromisingly in the first few lines, painting a grim picture of what is perhaps his boldest depiction of a life lived in isolation from both God and the wider world.

Crying out to a deity who may or may not have abandoned him, in “Wake Up Dead Man” (the lyrics of which were partly written by the Edge), Bono describes a bleak situation, one of being so consumed by naked anger with God that it makes hard listening for any believer. However, I’ve often found it the perfect sound track to those blackest of black moments, as the song almost perfectly articulates what it feels to have what Bono has called that “very valid” sense of outrage at a God who at times seems indifferent to the awfulness of the human condition.

The song goes to prove that sometimes we will feel lost, confused and alone in the world. And those times may leave us asking “God, why have you forsaken me.” Yet, the picture doesn’t remain bleak – as the next song U2 released was “Beautiful Day.” The song contrasts the previous one like Good Friday contrasts with Easter Sunday.

I’ve come to realize in my own life that it’s those deep, dark, lonely moments that make the moments of resurrection and reconciliation that much more beautiful.

What songs would you add to the list? Are there other songs, albums or movies that paint beautiful pictures of God’s reconciliation with you and the world around us? Are there other stories that you’ve heard that have brought about new understandings of God’s working in the world?