… think it is representative of a certain comfort in chaos that the emerging church embodies that an overly organized, packaged and hierarchical evangelicalism has a problem understanding. It comes down to the perspective and expectation of the individual, perhaps based on their cultural experience and biases.
Read more...What is the Church really?
Looking at the little congregation that i am a part of, i realize that it embodies our tribe’s ‘expression of’ and ‘connection to’ the body of Christ, otherwise known as “the Church”. Our individual relationship to Jesus, at least in some measure, is fleshed out in our connection to one another. God has brought us together at bluer(my church) for a purpose, He has bonded us for a reason.
Do I ever sit and ponder the mystic wonder of that? Do I really embrace the truth of it… honor the holiness of it?
I feel blessed to be a part of bluer and the community around it and really believe that what we are doing there is “the Church”. Is it a perfect reflection of Christ? Not likely, but bluer is, if i can speak for my brothers and sisters, a heartfelt and honest expression of our devotion to God.
This pondering is brought to you by Romans, chapter 12.
Gmail Invites
Got Gmail invites that I have been sitting on for a couple of months now. You want ’em come and get ’em. Send an email to ragedied at gmail dot com to reserve yours today.
For the non-initiated, Gmail is an online email account being offered by Google to compete directly with Yahoo! and Hotmail. Geeks are all over it just because it’s google and it is offering so awesome search functions. The rest of us may just want to grab that vanity address that we have been denied by those other services for all those years. How does thecoolone@gmail.com sound to you?
Blogging Slump
I was so proud of myself for blogging so regularly for a while there. Alas it was only a temporary euphoria. Now I feel the need just to post something… anything.
There have been quite a few things that I have wanted to blog on in the last month or so but it works out like this; I am a slow typer so it takes me a long time to put together just a few paragraphs and as I am typing I am thinking ahead of what is being typed too. Conceptually I am way ahead of my typing and thoughts get confused between what is being typed and what I am thinking of for the next paragraph. When it gets really bad I start skipping to the current thought in my head by ending the paragraph I am on and starting the next. This cheats the thought of the preceding paragraph and leaves out any thoughts that I may have had that would have linked the two paragraphs together. Not to mention the constant rereading of the current paragraph in order to recapture the essence of what I am trying to blog about in the first place, there by losing the current thought, you know the one two thoughts ahead on the thought being typed, never to be heard from again.
Ya dig what I am saying here?
Of course you don’t. I reread the paragraph and it doesn’t make sense to me… well yes it does, but only because I know the missing parts and the intent of the paragraph.
This whole thing is quite narcissistic and self-critical but interesting none the less. I am amazed sometimes at how my own thought process works. Analytical one moment and emotional the next, emphatic and unsure at the same time, I give myself a headache thinking about how I think.
Ok, so here it is, the obligatory blog entry. I am going to take some Advil now.
Ouch… is that an attack ad?
In their “God is Not a Republican. Or a Democrat.” campaign, Sojourners has released another salvo at what it has determined is the “religious right” with this video called Heavenly Convention.
Rooting for the Iraqis
I can not help but hope against hope the the Iraqi football team will win a medal in this Olympics. Sadly, they got knocked out of gold and silver contention when they lost to Paraguay today, but they face Italy on friday for the bronze.
The country has been through so much that you just want this for them. They are underdogs in the purest sense of the word and though I am not a fan of the sport, I would love to see that game.
Blogging.
I have just noticed that I blog fairly regularly now. That makes me happy. I have always wanted to have a regular journal and it now seems to be coming to fruition.
Yes, truly, my happy. 🙂
Insights from blog comments.
I am constantly amazed where I find insight into my faith these days. As I have gotten into reading blogs over the last few months, I have noted that many of the responses and comments to the blog posts are where I am challenged most.
I read one post this morning that lead me to two other blogs and some comments that may just work their way into my worldview. It all started with my buddy Nick’s post on slang where he references a term “Snob Goggles”. By way of defining that term, he links to a blog entry of Jason Clark called I Like My Mega Church which is actually just kudos for a third article of the same name by Elizabeth DiCandilo at off-the-map.org.
I read her article and found it interesting but still do not look too favorably on the mega-church model and wondered if there are any comments that reflect any other opinions. That’s when I am side-lined by two concepts that really have made any impression on me, mega-church biases aside….
Continue reading “Insights from blog comments.”
It makes me sad.
I go to ‘My Yahoo!’ homepage and see this picture and it makes me sad. What was his story? Who is weeping over his loss this evening?
We kill each other over what we think is right and good, all the while, the value and sanctity of life is lost in the exchange.
The true face of evil. (or, “Is Orin Hatch the anti-christ?”)
Let me add a hardy, “Here, here!” for my buddy Nick’s opinion of the INDUCE Act. Down with this evil, down I say!
As stated in the bill “the term `intentionally induces’ means intentionally aids, abets, induces, or procures, and intent may be shown by acts from which a reasonable person would find intent to induce infringement”… of what you ask?
Continue reading “The true face of evil. (or, “Is Orin Hatch the anti-christ?”)”