TV Rots your Left and Right Brains

I love those new Hulu.com commercials.  You know, the ones with Alec Baldwin or Seth McFarlan or Dennis Leary.  “TV rots your brains.”  The first time I saw one (during the Super Bowl) I thought, “Um, excuse me, did my dad help you write that commercial, because that was pretty much his mantra when I was a kid.”

I’m not going to lie, the thought of rotten brains kinda freaked me out when I was younger.  Every time I got a headache, I blamed it on Zach Morris or A.L.F.  Fortunately, now that I’m an adult, I know that this TV does not literally rot your brains (side note: why does it rot your ‘brains?’  As far as I know, I’ve just got the one brain.  It has two sides though; maybe that’s where it comes from.  TV rots your right AND your left brain, that’s what they should say from now on, right?).

Anyway, I resented my dad's interference and especially HATED it when he would turn the television off right in the middle of a show.  However, I now understand why he would have been concerned about the state of my brain.  I watched A LOT of television as a kid.  And by A LOT, I mean, WAYYYYY too much.

It began with Sesame Street, progressed to Mr. Roger’s, then Fraggle Rock, Mr. Wizard, You Can’t Say That on Television, Clarissa Explains it All, Family Ties, Small Wonder, The Cosby Show (which I LOVED because it made my mom laugh out loud every time we watched it), Three’s Company, Mama’s Family, The Brady Bunch, The Wonder Years, Growing Pains, Full House, Night Court, Who’s the Boss?, 90210, The New Adventures of Superman, X-Files, Baywatch (not kidding), Cheers, Saturday Night Live, Dr. Quinn: Medicine Woman, Seinfeld, Friends, The Simpsons, Dawson’s Creek, Felicity, General Hospital, Guiding Light, Oprah, ER, Six Feet Under, Sex and the City, The West Wing, Arrested Development, 24, Grey’s Anatomy, The Biggest Loser, Mad Men, LOST, The Office (both the British and the American versions), Gilmore Girls, Rome, American Idol and the best show ever created...30 Rock.  And these are just the ones that lasted more than one season.  I could add more, but at this point, it’s kind of embarrassing.

I can tell you right now that if you ask me to list stories from scripture or great theologians or huge moments in church history, my list wouldn’t even be half as long.  I still working out how I feel about having spent so much of my youth getting lost in someone else’s story and consequently denying my own.  My teachers always praised me for having ‘a wonderful imagination‘, and I believe that fueled my love of reading and writing from a very early age.  So, in some ways, television has taught me how to enjoy my creativity.  In other ways, it has taught me how to escape reality and lose myself in daydreams and fantasies.  There were many, many, many days when I would ignore pleas from my little sisters to ‘come outside and play‘ in favor of an episode of Swan‘s Crossing or The Young and the Restless.  Now that just seems like wasted time.

So, what does any of this have to do with Jesus, or Riverside or even Christianity as a whole?  Good question.  I want to take a hard look at how and why we (myself in particular) prefer getting caught up in a good show over allowing ourselves (myself) to be swept away by The Greatest Story Ever Told (the Bible, not the movie staring Willam Defoe).  Is it our sinful nature that draws us away from God with the promise that we will be more satisfied by make-believe than we ever could be with truth?  I can't speak for you, but I know that is the case for myself.  And it's not just television.  It's movies, music, books, blogs, magazines, advertisements, etc.  You name it, I have tried to lose myself in it.  As long as it requires nothing of me beyond playing the part of observer.  When 'they' use the term "target audience", it's pretty much always me 'they're' talking about.

Don't get me wrong, there is much good to be found there in make-believe land.  I believe we are creative people because we have a creative God.  Can you image how excited He must be as our stories play out before His eyes?  He wrote them, after all.  They call him the Great Author sometimes (although I’m still not sure who ‘they’ really are) and His own story is packed with mystery, drama, murder, adventure, revenge, forgiveness and love.  I’d venture to say that our God LOVES a good story.  He just prefers that we not give ourselves over to fiction in order to satisfy our own deep longing for adventure/love/satisfaction.  He gives us those longings in order that we might come to Him to see them fulfilled.  The ending might not be 'happy', but he promises that it will be good.

 

I’d like to jump back and address that ridiculously long list of TV shows I wrote about before.  I realize now that I have spent an extraordinary amount of my life in front of the boob tube.  Just to put your mind at ease, you should know that I am currently living without  a functioning television.  The one I have doesn’t work.  I don’t have cable or a digital convertor box, so I can’t even turn the thing on in the morning to watch the Today show while I get ready (and I lovewaking up to watch Matt Lauer talk about Twitter or Iraq or deer related bicycle accidents, let me tell you).  I pretty much only watch TV when I’m with other people.  I watch 24 and Lost with friends from my House Group (we call it ‘Back to Back Jack’ night), The Biggest Loser with my boss (they have DVR) and the Dog Whisperer with my mom (although she has learned nothing from Caesar Milan about training her own dog).  As with most things, I have found that television is best when shared with others.  

-Anne Simon

P.S. I really believe that if Jesus where walking around in the flesh today, he’s probably guest star on 30 Rock.  I bet Jesus and the Holy Spirit brag about what a good job God did when he created the mind of Tina Fey.  There are no signs of rotting there, just good old comedy leaking out of her into the television for our viewing enjoyment.  It’s not always clean humor, but I myself am a big fan of poop jokes and making light of human delusions and hypocrisies.  Sometimes, I laugh so hard I almost peed my pants.

You kid is an IPHONE

"Why does a Lieutenant Junior Grade with nine months' experience and a track record for plea bargaining get assigned to a murder case? Would it be so it never sees the inside of a courtroom?" (Daniel Kaffee, A Few Good Men). Sometimes I feel like this. Why would a single guy with no kids be placed in charge of youth (I have 9 years experience in this) and all things children's ministry? (No experience). I write this post with much fear and conviction, knowing that the Lord has placed this burden on my heart. I write this with all humility and hope that Christ would be glorified.

Throughout my years in youth ministry and my almost 6 months of children's ministry, I've found one common trend that all churches and parents face: how do I parent my child? I want to pose the question: "why do we treat our kids like iphones?" I don't have an iphone but I understand that you can download all kinds of apps that can make your phone do anything and everything the heart would desire. I saw a commercial for the iphone where you can download a list of birds and it can tell you the type, characteristics, and the specific "chirp" it makes. You can also download an app that will tell you if the plant you ran through is poisonous. Really?

In today's culture, kids are way over scheduled to the point where you need to make plans weeks in advance to hang out with them. I spoke with another youth director who told me that kids in their small group can hardly meet weekly because kids have multiple sports (not just one), private lessons for instruments, lessons for manners (i don't know how to spell the name of it), parties with friends, or other activities their kids are interested in. We recently went to Spring Storm and I spoke with my friends from Central Pres in Clayton and they said the same things about kids who needed to cancel coming because they forgot they had something else planned on that weekend (signups were months before).

Are we allowing culture to schedule our kids or are we taking that role back as parents and setting our kid's calendars ourselves? I'm not saying that having your kid in all these different activities is wrong but I wonder, "where are we scheduling God in the lives of our children?" Is it absolutely necessary to have our kids involved with 4 different things that their relationship with God suffers because they can't come to church or be more involved with ministries that are age specific? What would it look like for us to schedule God, first, in the lives of our children and allow everything else to fall into place after Christ? Help me out here, because I don't have kids... But, I know a lot of them, and they seem like they might have too many apps.

-Simon

The Original, the Modernized, and the Absurd (my personal favorite)

I don’t think there could possibly be a better rock and roll song written than “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction”.  As far as rock songs go, it has everything, Keith Richard’s famous guitar hook, driving drums that push the song along at a frantic pace, and daring lyrics. Give it a listen - it is a no holds barred attack on consumerism and concludes that things in our culture are simply not at they should be.  There isn’t resolution.  This might seem normal under modern standards, but this was released in 1965.  The second song on the billboard charts from that year was by the Four Tops and called I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch).  I take two things from this, 1. bands loved having parenthesis in their titles back then, and 2. just as now, it was probably highly abnormal to have a song railing against consumerism as a number one hit in 1965.

This song has been covered by hundreds of artists.  Two of which played the song better than the Stones did (in my humble opinion.)  The first of these is a relatively new artist (a category which contains probably 99% of all who have ever played rock and roll given the elderly age of the Stones J).  Her stage name is Cat Power.  Here is a clip of her playing the song.

Cat Power takes away the famous guitar riff, the drums, even the chorus – what is left is the haunting, but beautiful, core of the song.  It wasn't until I heard this version that I had any idea what the song was about.  This version of the songs reminds me of how much is missed when something is packaged for the masses.  Had this been what the Stones came to the record company with during the 60’s would it have ever seen the light of day? I doubt it – but it was what was there all along, murking beneath.  How often do we take things in our lives that are true, deep, and honestly felt – and temper those things with humor, false sincerity or any other defense mechanism in order to make them palatable to those around us?

The Stones did that in Satisfaction – they took a deep seated, honest criticism of culture, put a danceable rhythm on it, a sense of ecstasy, smiling faces, and they gloss over the meaningful lyrics to the point that they are clouded out of the song altogether.  I don’t blame them nor do I think it was a “wrong” way to approach it – I merely want to shine a light on the original approach Cat Power took.  I also wasnt to point you guys to my favorite version of the song - Otis Redding's.

A horn section has replaced Keith Richards and the drummer is no longer holding back (thank goodness).  I don’t have anything significant to say about it, I just think it is awesome.  If any of you would like to discuss other great covers I would love to read about them in the comments.  Happy Music Tuesday!

Hell: Post Sermon Blog

These past few weeks Riverside has been exploring "Systematic Theology" categories, but mainly through the words and actions of Jesus of Nazareth.

The series will conclude next week with "What did Jesus think about Resurrection?".

Yesterday Zack Eswine talked about the ways Jesus spoke of Hell, what it is, who is going, etc.

I would encourage you to follow the above link and listen to the sermon if you didn't get to hear it. For me the most poignant part was Zack's assessment of who is going and who isn't as less relevant than other questions. But, I don't think I can eloquently re-create his argument (although the simple aspect of the argument is that Jesus seemed more interested in talking about Hell for other purposes: therefore, those questions are more relevant).

Instead, I wanted to present a rhetorical question from the Sermon today, and I would love to hear your thoughts. "Imagine the predicament we're in if God does not/cannot judge injustice. Imagine the predicament we're in if we are not allowed to judge injustice." The point is that - taking the life, teachings, death, and resurrection of Jesus on their own merits (which isn't easy for many, I grant you that) - then Hell is a loving expression of God. It is, in fact, a loving idea.

Crazy...

Thoughts???

Discuss...

PS - I choose this picture because, Biblically speaking (Contra John Milton I'm afraid), Satan does not rule in Hell either...

-Matt

Film Fridays - Star Trek

Star Trek
Rated: PG-13
Director: J.J. Abrams

Are there stories that are worth telling over and over again? Did you know Rocky won best picture in the 70's? What's the differences between sequels and movies like Harry Potter which are assumed to go on until finished? Do you like to see movies? Why or why not?

I love them. So, on some Fridays we will throw up a movie review for you.

What I loved about this movie: I loved the story. One of the reviews out there says that Star Trek is this year's "Iron Man" - I agree. Good movie, fun, good story, good acting, the human element well-developed (at least that is my take on Iron Man... and I did read the comic, from 89-90). I loved the movement, it wasn't difficult to follow, but it moved quickly - maybe even predictably at the beginning, but still at a good pace for a Sci-Fi movie. I really enjoyed watching the back story of so many characters, and then getting those back stories twisted into a knot later in the movie!

What I did not love: although I am not a Trekky there were some very dignified scenes that the writing left out to dry. I refuse to give things away for those still planning to see it, but there were some very fun old school aspects... And, I thought they could have been done better with those.

Intersection of the film with the Gospel: many movies about the future assume human evolution will take care of our violence and destruction towards ourselves - Star Trek has never taken that route and I appreciate it. The Gospel holds in tension the beauty and the ugliness of people - good films bring out both (in my opinion). I believe the story of the state of the world (tragic mess) and the need for an unlikely hero are written very deeply upon us (there is more to it, romance is usually a factor, but the romance must interact with the story to move us, it can't be a passive piece). Most films not only involve the unlikely hero and the mess of the world - but we get to see her or him develop. This is done well in Star Trek.

3.5/5 stars.

-Matt

Theology Thursday (Politics and Faith: Immigration)

David Noble is a member of Riverside and former intern.

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” This is the inscription on the Statue of Liberty, which has been the historical entry point for millions of people immigrating to the U.S. from all over the Western hemisphere for hundreds of years. Throughout our nation’s history attitudes toward immigration have swung back and forth between hostile and welcoming. Sadly to duplicate this inscription on our Southern border would be the height of hypocrisy. Current attitudes in the U.S. toward immigrants are split and tending toward hostile. Attitudes in Evangelical Christian circles tend to be more hostile toward immigrants, especially toward those in this country illegally. The Family Research Council, an Evangelical Christian organization, conducted a survey of its members in March 2006, which indicated that 5 out of 6 members believed that immigrants living in the U.S. illegally should be “detected, arrested and returned to their country of origin.” Is this attitude a Biblical one? Does the Bible speak to the proper attitude of Christians toward immigrants?

Usually in discussions about illegal immigration the focus is on a country’s right to secure it’s borders, which is a question grounded in the rule of law, which is a concept derived directly from Scripture. [Whether the way our country does this currently is just is a question beyond the scope of this post, but certainly a valid question.] But discussions about a country’s right to secure it’s borders, don’t take into account another Biblical concept, which has also been present in international understandings and law for millennia; the individual’s right to migrate. Biblical examples supporting this notion abound; one is that God commanded Abraham to migrate from Ur, and another is God commanded Moses to lead an entire oppressed people group out of North Africa and into the Middle East.
Beyond this, God actually has a place in his heart for the immigrant and requires His people to care for them as a subset of God’s command for us to love our neighbors. The basis for God requiring us to have compassion on immigrants is that Israel is to remember that they were once immigrants and oppressed and that God delivered them, so that they may deliver others from oppression by welcoming the immigrant (eg. Exod. 22:21; 23:9). In fact God used Israel’s time under the oppression as a migrant labor force to develop in them compassion for those who were migrants in their land, because they were to be the people of God to whom all the nations came to meet God. Part of this meeting with God included being welcomed by his people. This applies to the Christian because we have been grafted in (Romans 11) – God has welcomed us to be part of His people, and He expects us to extend this attitude of welcome to people everywhere (e.g. Rom 15) and in particular immigrants. The extent of the welcome includes celebration as well (e.g. Deut 5:14; 14:29; 16:11, 14; 26:11-13). While these passages are describing religious celebrations, in the context these are also social celebrations. We can understand this today as welcoming the immigrant and encouraging them to integrate into our culture; not in a hostile “do it or else” way, but in a way that allows them to continue to rejoice in the way God has made them as a particular people. The Psalms encourage us to identify with the immigrant: Ps 39:12, “Hear my prayer, O LORD/ and give ear to my cry /hold not your peace at my tears!/For I am a sojourner with you/ a guest, like all my fathers,” and Ps 119:19, “I am a sojourner on the earth;/ hide not your commandments from me!” Because the immigrant is at greater risk for exploitation and marginalization, special care must be given to him to ensure that equity is maintained. Finally although obvious it bears mentioning that immigrants are created in the image of God (Gen 1:26-28) just like the native born and that is sufficient reason in and of itself to care for their dignity and lives, and that indeed all the rest of what has been said here flows out of this notion.

I have left the question of precedence between the right to secure borders and the right to immigrate open in this post, mainly due to space limitations, but also to encourage discussion on the question. My goal here has been to challenge the prevailing Evangelical notion that the United States’ right to secure its borders is absolute. If we are honest in our approach to Scripture we must admit that we have a responsibility to welcome those who are marginalized and oppressed and find ways to welcome them into our businesses, churches, homes and hearts.

David Noble

PS - for more political/religious discussion roll out to Llywelyn's tonight (Thursday Night) for On Tap: www.ontapdiscussion.blogspot.com

Parenting Stories (Part 2)

When Matt asked me to write about parenting, my thoughts went in fifty directions. As the mom of three very different children, ages 17, 20, and 23, I have lots of material to choose from. Teenagers can be very challenging and, for a period of time, that was the understatement of the year around here. But God is amazing in how he walked us through each day, picking up the pieces of our mistakes and showing us in every situation how much he loves our children.

Ken and I would try so hard to make the right decisions for our kids. But even after prayer, searching, and many long nights of discussion we would often not get it right. And then God, in his loving, “I have plenty of grace for you” way, would show us what we were really supposed to do. When my daughter Laura was getting ready to finish high school, we visited 12 colleges. I’m not kidding! I almost had to take out a student loan to pay for the gas! But finally we made a decision and she enrolled at Hannibal LaGrange, a nice little Christian College not too far away. She called me almost every day and tried to sound cheerful, but I could tell how totally homesick she was. And, after the second visit there, I knew she was miserable and depressed. So we brought her home at semester break, she enrolled at Meramec, and like magic she turned back into her happy self. She had been living here at home for 17 months and it is very evident that she needs to be here. She still needs us and, in many ways, we still need her. We have a precious relationship.
Not many years earlier I would have told Laura she needed to “stick it out,” because it was a good college and she needed to be where she could totally focus on her studying. But children need so much more than “what is best for them.” They need to be loved for who they are, even if that is fragile and broken. Maybe that is what I need too. At Riverside we talk a lot about what it means to be human in light of the humanity of Jesus. I think the correlation is simple in this case – My kids need me to accept them without any expectations. That doesn’t mean that is all there is to parenting, but it means I need to love them without any expectations. After 3 kids and 23 years of parenting I am finally figuring that out!

-Carolyn Knarr

Music Monday

"The characteristic common to God and man is apparently [this]: the desire and the ability to make things up."
-Dorothy Sayers

I wonder sometimes what it is about certain forms of art (particularly music and literature, at least for me) that can cause people to be so enthralled, enamored and even enraged. I think Ms. Sayers was on to something. As image bearers of God, one of the traits that we carry with us is the capacity for creation, which is also a capacity to appreciate beauty...and God saw that it was good...and a capacity to recognize when something in creation is askew...it was not good. As we use this space to blog about music and other arts, I look forward to an ongoing discussion about how we view creation and the act of creating as part of our reflection of God's character.

Stuff that I’ve seen/heard/read recently that I might blog about later: Rachel Getting Married, Rural Alberta Advantage, Other Lives, The Decemberists, and White Rabbits (as a shout out the the Webster boys who made good, see their new video posted below)

-Brian Janous

Is Faih a Weakness???

-Bob Dillon is a member of Riverside Church, and the assistant principle of Nipher Middle School in nearby Kirkwood, Mo. Bob recently taught a class in media at UMSL, and the Riverside Blog asked him to help us deal with media and the phenomenon of 24 hour news.

Is Faith a Weakness?

The essayists, authors, and commentators of our secular society have
finally broken me down. They have convinced me that yes, faith is a
weakness. They have swayed me to think that faith creates a skewed
perception of reality and clouds the decision-making ability of those
that lean on it for support. They have persuaded me that those of faith
aren’t tolerant and open people that embrace all and accept that
society is growing in the right direction.

They have me believing that faithful people lack the understanding of
our complex, global society in which values are flexible and decisions
are made systematically without the crutch of a decision-making
structure that accounts for God’s will. Finally, they have established
for me that faith doesn’t allow us to think, be intellectual, or
experience life to the fullest as it limits our time, creates
commitments, and steers conversation.

How can we grow strong with these chains of faith bound to our side? In
this world that requires us to absorb new ideas and information, having
a lens of faith, through which all filters, is our secular worlds
version of a death sentence to enlightenment. One of the many affects of
this pressure is to muteall discussion of faith in casual conversation.

Has anyone else recognized how hard it is to talk about faith,
church-life, or God among casual friends, acquaintances, or those at
work? I’m not even talking about evangelizing, but simple mentions of
what fulfills your life. I wonder if I am afraid because I worry I will be
seen as weak, out of the mainstream, or simply that the grand light of
my opinions will seem dim? :)

This pressure shouldn’t pigeonhole conversations about faith, values,
and religion because isn’t this society at its fullest when no ideas
are muted in the marketplace of ideas? As people of faith, it remains
important that we examine these concepts about faith as weakness that
are presented to us almost daily while still focusing on the reasons
that we grow through faith.

My encouragement - after teaching near this subject for a year, is in a few areas.
First, we must walk miles in others’ shoes.
This means most importantly that we understand the core concerns of
those resisting a society with a faithful lifestyle in the forefront. By
pushing aside the ideas of the secular society without careful
examination, how can we possibly ask the same from the other side when
our moments to persuade occur.

Second, people of faith radiate a beauty of kindness. We need to
purposefully use this glow throughout our daily lives in our actions.
This means choosing to do the little things until the little things are
so habitual that they flow naturally everyday. I believe that there is a
true sense throughout all of society that these types of actions are the
core strength of those with faith.

It is hard for me to not see faith as a weakness. But, when I clear my head,
through actions and prayer, I know that I am actually weak without
faith.

A Break from Blogging (and everything Else)

A Couple of years ago someone pointed out to me that the only part of our regular calendar that isn't based upon the movement of some Heavenly body is the 7-day week. I think it is interesting that the day is based on the earth spinning, the month (loosely) is based upon the orbit of the moon, and the year on the earth's orbit around the sun. But the week is based upon the fabric of Creation - as explained in Genesis 1 - that we work six days and rest.

I think we will probably alternate Sabbath blogging with Movies (because we seem to be running out of days relative to writers), but on many Fridays I hope the blog is a simple encouragement to you to participate with the creator of the world. The rhythm he set up from the beginning is work most of the week, and rest and corporate worship on the first day. There are arguments about all of these things, and that is why I am keeping it vague (for now :) ). Simply put, remember to rest this weekend. If you want a reference the longer version of the Commandment (it had already appeared in Exodus 16 and Genesis 1, is Exodus 20:8-11 and it is still easy to apply to our weekends in 2009.

8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

Enjoy your day off - it is a sign that you know who made the world. And, I hope you will enjoy corporate worship with Riverside on Sunday morning.

Commandment 11: Thou Shalt Not Be A Gamer

So… when Blazer asked me to be one of the reoccurring Riverside Church bloggers, it only made sense that I shamelessly use the platform to wax eloquently (or not so eloquently) about all things addictively entertaining (from Reality TV to low budget Sci- Fi originals (holla out to my boy Brent Roam -- star of Tremors 4), from blockbuster movies to video games and everything in between. (How’s that for a run-on sentence?)

Anyhow… I’ll do my best to keep regular and share a tidbit or two about the latest and greatest of all these things, and do my best to provoke some earnest dialogue about how Christians engage within our everyday culture throughout.

For my first inaugural posting though, I thought I’d step back a second and talk briefly about video games and how they’ve led me closer to Jesus. (You laugh, but I’m serious!) It felt appropriate, in the wake of weekly scoffing from the churched and non-churched alike, that I tell you my story…

Like many, I grew up in a pretty good Christian home. One thing that stood out though, was that besides alcohol, the only other thing we never had around… was video games. All my friends had Nintendos and Play Stations, but for the most part, we had zilch. That is… until college. When college rolled around, I was baptized into the world of late night having, class-ditching Playstation and Nintendo 64 game delight! It was glorious! Then...I got married. (Pause)

To be fair to my wife, it was I who made the call to get rid of the thing, since I would frequently not be aware that she had gotten home from work 30 minutes earlier (as I was deeply engrained into the next mission on Golden Eye etc). It was the right decision!

For more than 6 years the Hogan home was video game free. Kids were born, hands were full, time was busy etc. Then, one day... (the heavens parted)...and a game called Gears of War came out on the Xbox 360. Within 3 months, me and 10 other dudes had all convinced our wives that it was gonna be different this time, and almost overnight each one of us got a system and spent every hour playing games. This time however, WAS a bit different. Technological advancements gave us the advent of the wireless headset (which allows you to talk to your friends as you team up and play games together), and since most of us only started playing after the wife and kids were in bed, games started being tolerated by our families and the world was in perfect balance.

So up until this point, you’re probably rolling your eyes if you haven’t stopped reading entirely. Thanks for bearing with me. Here’s the catch. Over the course of a few weeks, something happened. Similar to when guys get together week after week for a softball game, or to shoot hoops, community started forming. Real, honest-to-goodness community. It’s amazing how close you get to someone, when you’re huddled in a trench or behind cover, back to back trying not to get pwned. Real conversation, which led to real relationship building, which eventually led to (what’s now a 2 years and going strong) 14 man bible study… happened! In fact, guys who I’d only met online (friends of friends in town) started actually becoming real life friends. Bonds were formed, relationships grew and now I’m part of a gang of dudes who love Jesus and one another, and are committed to serving each other as the gospel has taught us to.

I’ve left a lot of details out, and this isn’t all due to the release of Halo3 or that Microsoft paid for this blog spot or anything. I guess I just see it as a good example of how God can use a “secular” medium for his glory. You’ll note a continued theme throughout most of my upcoming postings (via the likes of Tim Keller, Mike Erre) about how we as Christians are supposed to engage in our culture and not remove ourselves from it. Are there limits? Certainly! Are there problems with addiction and excess? Absolutely! But do we throw it all away because it’s not the over sanitized Christians only... Left Behind: The Kirk Cameron Video Game? Come on!

If video games aren’t your thing... that’s cool. Maybe it’s scotch. Maybe its quilting. Maybe it’s HSM (that stands for High School Musical... you nerds know who you are). Whatever it is, can we agree that in an appropriate context, God can use the most unlikely experiences for his glory?

Ask yourself this… WJBAG (Would Jesus Be A Gamer?)

The answer is an emphatic yes… (his gamertag is y@w3h#1)!

-Josh Hogan. Culture Thursdays will alternate (with little rhyme or reason) with Theology Thursday, and will feature many authors.

Parenting Stories

-On a good week Wednesday will be the day we engage what it means to be a parent and believe the Gospel. Today's post is by Greta Coalier.

When my first daughter, Sadie was a few months old we were invited to my friend’s house for coffee. Her son was the same age as Sadie and I remember gazing adoringly at our sweet babies while sipping coffee and chatting. Somehow in conversation the nature of sin came up and how our babies were wired for it already. I thought to myself maybe your baby is full of sin but my baby is perfect and wonderful and pure as the driven snow. I mean, what does it even mean to be "wired for sin"? You may have guessed by now that I am still on the bunny slope of this Christian path. Maybe a year and a half later as I was learning more and more about Jesus and falling head over heels for him, Sadie, my sweet innocent baby looked straight at me and told me her first lie. Sam or I had not taught her how to lie. We did not model that behavior or read books about it. My sweet girl figured it out all on her own and I realized the truth of my friend’s words. From that moment on I understood on a whole other level my intense need for Jesus.

I forgave Sadie that day, before she had even finished her tantrum. We are built from the ground up needing and wanting and manipulating to get what we want, and as a parent sometimes all I can do is forgive. But here is the rub; I fight God all the time. I think my plans, my parenting; my control is enough for my kids. Sadie is going to start kindergarten in the fall and I spend nights awake, full of fear thinking I have made the wrong choice, she needs a different school, a better school, I haven’t done enough research. And, I still have oceans of parenting in front of me!

I can feel the love I have for my children like an ache because it is so vast and sometimes frightening. It makes the love of Jesus that much more difficult to understand in its depth and richness. As a parent I am still trying to get off the bunny slope. I forget to pray, I forget to let things go, I frantically try and control but I know God forgives me and that he is with me. God is parenting my children with me, I am not alone. That sounds simple, but it is profoundly comforting.

About a year ago Sam and I decided that he would get a vasectomy. I felt sure that three girls was my limit! At the time we said things like, “ if God really wants us to have a forth child he can make it happen regardless of this surgery.” However we didn’t really believe that! It just sounded good saying it; like we were sure God was on board with our decision. So yes, we are pregnant with our forth child, on the bunny slope. We are unsure and frightened. But, we still believe we are not alone in our parenting.

-Greta Coalier

Simple Question

In the brilliant novel Gilead, John Ames says, "Wherever you turn your eyes the world can shine like transfiguration," he writes. "You don’t have to bring a thing to it except a little willingness to see. Only, who could have the courage to see it?"

What Maryilynne Robinson is getting at is our temptation to see some things as more spiritual than other things. I have that tendency. Why? Why do I think that making (or eating) an omelet is less spiritual (or not at all spiritual) than prayer, or going to church?

Are you that way? Why or why not? How did you get this way, and what do you think of it?

Through the above link you can listen to Sunday's sermon on "How Jesus looked at people" for additional thoughts/provocation/insight.

-Matt

Music Monday (Usually Tuesday)

I am going to let you guys in on a little secret - Zack Eswine loves Journey. As someone who began to love music - I mean REALLY love music - during the beginning of the 1990’s this seems like musical blasphemy. From my perspective, in 1991, Nirvana lined up Journey and all of their peers (G&R, Motley Crue, Ratt, any band with big hair) and instantly made them irrelevant. This probably says a lot more about me than it does about any of the bands listed above.
Why do I constantly try to take something so remarkably subjective like musical taste/context and try to force it into objective truth? I also seem to love to judge and categorize. I wonder if I do it to create a false sense of security for myself – of course only in regard to my opinions concerning music ☺.
Journey rocks – at least they did when Steve Perry was their lead singer. Nirvana didn’t change that. They probably were a better representation of what was happening in our culture during 1991, but that certainly doesn’t make it “better”.
In this space I hope to explore why music matters, at least in a subjective way. Sometimes that will be in the form of a review or suggestion, sometimes commentary, sometimes I might just ramble on and on. Upfront I would like to state that I do not come to judge but to discuss and appreciate. For reasons beyond current human understanding God has created for us a world in which bare melodies can transform our perception of the world. Nietchze said that “life without music is a mistake.” So let us not make that one.
The authors of Music Monday love comments, topic ideas, and sharp negative criticism... Or, just the first two!

-Jason Wilson

A New Blog (almost) Rolled Out

So, the blog hasn't really been the dream-come-true we thought it might be!

I don't know if we knew what that would be, but we're clear it isn't accomplishing as much discussion as we would like.

Therefore, we are going to roll out a different flavor for about a month and see how that strikes everyone.

The preacher will still write about the sermon, but now we will be collecting that blog on Sunday Night (because you all check your blogs on Monday morning), and then we will begin a wider authorship - including music, TV, parenting, church-in-general, and other topics. So, this will begin next Monday morning, and we hope you enjoy it.

The purpose will be the same: to engage our mission and vision (namely Jesus... don't know if you've been catching that focus through the sermons) through the lens of our lives and the dominant culture. If you have thoughts please post them, if you would like to write please send Matt an email, and if you're opposed you're going to have to stop clicking on the blog because Google Analytics knows when you click!

Thanks!

-Matt

Jesus and the Bible

So today’s topic might not be the most interesting, but who knows…some might find it quite interesting to chew on and think about (ooh, ending a sentence in a preposition! Mrs. Cramer, my eighth grade English teacher, would have my hide!).

Yesterday’s message reflected something of Jesus’ own view of the Bible. Now, a few points are worth mentioning. 1., If you don’t claim to follow Jesus, you still need to know that he had his own views and understanding about the Bible itself. 2., Jesus, most likely, didn’t have a personal copy of the Bible (his Bible were scrolls of the Old Testament and they were housed in the synagogues of the day). 3., This blog will have nothing to do with canon formation or textual criticism (if you don’t know what those are, then probably all the better…).

Now, we said that Jesus’ own view of the OT was that all of it pointed to him. This was neither a show of megalomania nor one of brash hubris. Through his life and teaching, he actually validated what the entirety of his Bible “pointed towards.”

A very important point arises at this point (Dang it! Same word twice, in one sentence, each with a different sense. I hear you coming, Mrs. Cramer). We said that the OT pointed forward to a coming Messiah, but what sort of Messiah would he be? This question is HUGE!!! Was he going to be a great moral guru? A social activist? A dude who tossed-out pithy platitudes, hoping that some would listen? Or, something else altogether? This question seems to be of the utmost importance (i.e., though the OT pointed to a Messiah, what kind of Messiah would he be? Moreover, how would he, in fact, prove this Messiah-ship?). It seems to me that that the type of Rescuer (read: Messiah) that the OT points towards is one who would die and his death (and subsequent resurrection) would “set the world” right.

In what ways do you see is as significant that we get the correct type of Messiah? Thanks for your thoughts…

--Ryan