2009: A Good Year for music

My Best of 2009…so far



We are coming on the end of the 2000s. It seems like just yesterday we were fretting over the world being overcome by the Y2K computer glitch, who knew what we really had to fear was that the computers would keep working and someone would invent Facebook. In honor of the closing of this fine decade (have we decided yet what to call it, the aughts?, that just doesn’t sound right) Pitchfork has begun counting down its top 200 albums of the 2000s. They will be counting down all week, today was 200-151. Personally, I’m already outraged due to the fact that Okkervil River’s Black Sheep Boy was listed at 174…it easily should have been 165. I’m kidding, of course, it easily should have been in the top 20.
I really like lists. I find it odd how often I will click on a link to a story that has something to do with ranking something or other. Today it was ‘The Top 5 Overpaid CEOs’- I don’t care that the CEO of Abercrombie is overpaid, nor should I trust they guy making the list to determine whether or not the Abercrombie CEO even warrants being on the list- but I clicked on it, because it was a list. I don’t know why I do that. Same reason that I like award shows I guess, I even like award shows for stuff I don’t even like. I like to know who won a Tony, but I don’t really care much for musicals. Maybe lists bring some order and sanity to my otherwise chaotic life.
To commemorate my affection for lists, here is an early preview of my best albums of 2009, so far. There are a couple of releases coming up that could certainly make a run, but for now, I suggest that you check out these albums:
Phoenix- Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix (probably my album of the year)
The Antlers- Hospice
We Were Promised Jetpacks- These Four Walls
The Rural Alberta Advantage- Hometowns
Various Artists- Dark Was the Night (odd to have a compilation on the list, but this was outstanding)
Passion Pit- Manners
Animal Collective- Merriweather Post Pavillion
The Decemberists- The Hazards of Love
Grizzly Bear- Veckatimest
-Brian

What is the Good Life?

To love and to be loved in Him is to experience the good life. Is this what Jesus is saying to us by His way of identifying and relating to neighbors?

Jesus sets before us His love for children, the sick, the widow, and the poor. He dignifies and heals the sexually damaged, and the mentally broken. He lovingly cares for and wisely disrupts His enemies; those who bully. His love for the Samaritans, His call to all nations, and His humorous choice of a staunch Jewish man to become an advocate for the Gentiles, names our racial and ethnic bigotries and invites us to a neighborliness that crosses our fears of color and cultural identity.

By doing so, is Jesus suggesting that to be poor or sick, broken or misunderstood does not disqualify one from a good life? For these, love exists. For these, love doesn't quit.

Or is Jesus offering a mirror to the rich, the healthy, the whole and the privileged? Is he saying to the adult, remember you too were once a child whom any adult could overpower in arm wrestling. You too remember the pain of loveless power moves, manipulative words, or neglectful actions. Will you treat children the same way you were treated with some kind of "it's my turn now" mentality? Or will you have learned something from what was missing of love and seek to mend this breach for another?

Or is it simply that our pride of health is challenged by Jesus' love for those whose bodies are broken? Is it that our pride of intellect is humbled by the healing attention that Jesus pays to the mentally cracked. Our is it that our pride of wealth is exposed by Jesus' gift of time, food and presence to the poor?

What if Jesus is simply reminding us that we will not always have money? Health will not always patron our bodies. Soundness will not always enjoy its stay in our brains. And then what?

Can the good life be had when money, health and power are gone? Will it only arrive when making contests and giving trophies on the basis of one's color, culture or competence have ceased?

What if amid the chants of "we're number one, we're number one" that bellow and clank in the world, there is an ordinary moment on a mundane street, in which one neighbor brings to another a half-finished container of caramel apples from Schnuck's grocery? Then, whether rich or poor, black or white, insane or sane, whole or damaged, something of heaven is glimpsed. Love whispers presence. A good life remains possible.

Maybe according to Jesus, a good life begins by asking in Him, "Who is my neighbor?" If so, maybe through Him we can learn to set our resume on the table for a moment, walk out onto our porch, take a moment to breath a prayer, and have a look. Maybe the good life begins on our porches.

Why I love our church

If you are ambivalent about Christianity and Jesus (which I was for 26 years) you don't need to read any further. Okay, but fair warning it's about God.

I have been thinking lately about how crazy scary the world we live in is. I don't ever watch the news because it makes me cry but I overhear people talking or I switch on the radio and there is a news report or my husband Sam will ask me if I have heard about the latest horrifying incident. Before becoming a Christian I would literally shut down with fear, with hopelessness. I didn't know God so how could I have any shred of relief? It all seemed to pointless and so unbearably sad. Somehow the Lord pursued our family and I ended up nine months pregnant with our first daughter in a church and I experienced a little tiny bit of hope. I didn't even know Jesus yet but I found comfort there. I liked they way the people I met were living there lives, not without trials but with faith, with hope. Today as a parent I cling to Jesus, to heaven, to church. It's my safety in an unsafe world. Being part of a community that knows me, knows my children and cares for us is just a part of it. Knowing that God loves me and my family gives me the strength and hope to keep parenting, keep living, keep pursuing goodness even when I fail miserably. Yes, there are things I don't like about our church, sometimes the sermons are boring, I'm not a huge fan of the donut holes they have there that make my children crazy with sugar. There are mornings when the thought of getting three ornery kids into somewhat weather appropriate clothes with teeth and hair brushed seems like an overwhelming task. However, none of it matters one single little bit because I love my church more than those things, more than anything really because it keeps me grounded. It is a safe welcoming place for my family. It is where we learn more about the Lord and his love for us. It is where we go to hope.

A couple of weeks ago at church Sadie our oldest received a children's bible for graduating into the Kindergarten class. From the moment she got it she has insisted that she sleep with it and that we read it every night. When she is afraid we pray. When we see something beautiful we thank God. Yesterday Sadie told me that, "God is our father even daddy's because we are all his kids". Ruby says the same prayer every night,"Thank you for the whole family even baby Charlie in mommy's tummy, I LOVE YOU GOD!" Poppy just looks at us, she is still not talking, but any day now she is going shock us all by saying Amen! All of this we learned and experienced because of our church. So church, rain or shine, staff changes, members leaving, members joining, messy human interactions, donut holes and all, that is why I love you.

-Greta Coalier

Parenting Page: Linking Up

There is no original parenting page this week. Instead, check out the Leopard Man and the new post on our parenting blog

Optimism

My favorite band is Radiohead – yes, I am one of those...I am sorry. A song on their year 2000 release, Kid A, called “Optimistic” has been on my mind lately. The song is somewhat abrasive, consisting of a driving beat and an Eastern music influenced minor scale. You can listen to them play it live in the video above. The lyrics drip with sarcasm and the chorus states mockingly…

“You can try the best you can,
you can try the best you can.
The best you can is good enough”.

I am a man who deeply desires to do the best I can, and who is ashamed that the best I can is not enough. That is, simply, pride. I must daily take the time to pause, think, and accept that because I am fallen, because I am not perfect the best that I can do will never be enough. It won’t be enough for my wife, for my children, for my employer, for my friends, for doing the dishes, for anything, but I so desperately want it to be.
This desire can seem good or productive, and includes some earthly rewards, but it concludes the same every single time - frustration - my best is not enough. But now for the Good News. God is more than enough. Though we are incomplete he is doing a great work in us. It isn’t because we try hard, or do our best, it is because of his benevolent love for us which he has freely given.
So I confess that I am a prideful, broken, and in end not even a good man. However, God is completing me and someday, due to his perfection and sacrifice, my best will be enough.
Think of where you are broken, confess to God where you are broken, and rejoice in the fact that you are a chosen child of Him, that you are loved more deeply than you can imagine, and that one day you will be complete.

-Jason W. Wilson Esquire

Jesus and Mental Health

In his, Hunches in Bunches, Dr. Seuss describes what can happen to a mind. A mind can become, "frightfully ga-fluppted, " and "murky-mooshy." Such words for children well-describe my adult mind. Though I have known what it is to take the hand of a counselor and walk through the dark, and though I have known what it is to need medication for a season to give my thoughts a night-light in the corner, I require no disease of mind, (though many such diseases there are) or intentional amnesia through the abuse of some deceptive substance of addiction to feel that my mind is often broken. I am at times genuinely confused or frustratingly forgetful. I know what it is to have mistaken thoughts about this or that. The capacity to willfully rationalize my way into what eventually harmed me sources my regrets. "What was I thinking?" often describes the motto that fills my sighs and accompanies a shaking of my head while I look somber down in painful memory; and all of this before age has set in.

Perhaps my acquaintance with being "frightfully ga-fluppted" fuels my kindred feeling for the mentally tormented man whom Jesus ransomed from demons, restored peace, and recovered him "clothed and in his right mind." (Luke 8:35). His condition was ugly and demonic. Shackles, violence and solitary confinement formed the only help he had ever received.

It does not surprise me that torment was what the man expected from Jesus (Lk. 7:28). Ugliness gone normal has a way of suffocating hope even when God Himself enters our story. What does surprise me is how one can learn to hate beauty when routines and habits have been settled in the norms of ugliness. When Jesus sets this man in his right mind, people fear rather than celebrate. Healing, beauty, and goodness arouse resistance not gratitude. The broken minded want Jesus to leave not because He will harm them, but precisely because He can heal them (Lk. 8:37). Sometimes the most frightful thing facing a person is the prospect of their healing.

The broken-minded have our wires crossed, don't we? We welcome those patterns of thought, feeling and action which have always harmed us. But when healing pops the question, we refuse the ring. To heal means change. Change requires leaving the known and entering the unknown. Sometimes prisons feel like home. The community in this passage choose to remain safe and harmed. But the man? "Snowflakes kiss the scabs between his filthy rags." In his right mind, Jesus sends him home. The man goes to an old place in a new way. The man returns to those who hated him, mocked him or feared him. He returns to those who saw him naked, bruised and shrieking. The discomfort of health pursues them. Now that his mind is mending, their jokes will have to change. Are they willing?

Voting and Healthcare

Last Night I was talking to my mom and she called Barack Obama a socialist. We proceeded to attempt to discuss some of his policies and why it may or may not be helpful to label the president. :) I love mom. You never wonder what she is thinking.

Once, when I was visiting her and my brother she was talking about Sean Hannity, and my brother started saying, "Sean Hannity is an idiot." And my mom said, "No he isn'." And they went back and forth and back and forth. Did I mention that this was on the way to the airport to drop off my brother? It was. They kept going. Seriously. He has a PHD in Philosophy and my mom has been a small business owner for 30-some years; they are both intelligent, etc. "He is an idiot." "No, he isn't." Not yelling, but voices are getting heated. Then we pull up. "I love you Mom", "I love you too honey, have a safe flight!". End of discussion.

Tonight, at On Tap we are discussing Health Care. I know right... SO PREDICTABLE! Did you know that Town Hall meetings about this have ended in fist-fights? I would promise no fist fights tonight, but I do not know who is coming. Hopefully the moderator will be able to exert control when needed!

What if we had a mutually edifying discussion towards parties? What if people on all sides learned from one another? What if tonight's On Tap was able to offer dignity to everyone in the room's opinion, regardless of the decibel level they are able to reach? I think that that would be just as amazing, just as redemptive in some ways, as if the health care system could be "fixed". Can I encourage you to come and learn at tonight's On Tap, even if you haven't "kept up" with the issue? By the way, the world is having a mild crisis relative to the reality of 24-hour news... So, everyone probably feels a little left out! Can I encourage you to come to On Tap tonight if you know the issue well - maybe you can help people understand it better - and to do that carefully but clearly? Can I encourage you to argue with people tonight - but to do it in a respectful, even humble way? Not by saying "With all due respect", but by meaning it and at the same time clearly calling out the different perspectives in the room?

I'm finished with my "encouragements". I know I should have probably said "may", but who knows the rules of language on a blog anyway?

A couple of primers: What does it say about our culture and America that this has dominated the news the way that it has? Ought people to vote their conscience as an individual or as a citizen? (I don't mean to make those two exclusive unnecessarily). I hope you are able to join our discussion tonight at Llywellyn's in WG, at 7:00

Commercials and Advertising

As I have listened to Zack's comments about the cultural impacts of many of the commercials on television during football games, I began to think about solutions. Solution-making seems to be a default setting of mine, a setting that I have had to learn to adjust at times as I have realized that some people are looking just for someone to listen instead of someone to solve their problem, but in the case of television commercials, I'm searching for a solution. Though I take a more conservative stance on the impact of television images on kids and adults, I do see how amazed Ellie gets when something other than her show or my sporting event takes to the television. Commercial influence goes beyond television also. Television advertising revenue is falling as though gravity is working double, so there is also a need to keep our eyes on internet advertising and advertising sent to mobile phones. Both of those areas are worthy of comment, but I digress to stay minimally focused. My realization for this week is that we no longer live in an era of live television. Sure, this isn't news, as we have been watching youtube videos and taping television on our DVR or TiVo for some time, but I do believe that the shift has taken hold for a growing plurality of our country, which is all it takes for a fad to become a tradition. With the death of live television, we have also gained more control over the culture button in our homes. If it is true, as Andy Crouch states in Cultural Making, that our role as Christians is to interact with culture wearing the hat of an artist and/or a gardener so that we can at times create new culture or cultivate the current culture by fertilizing the good stuff while also pulling the weeds, then our digital video recorders are perfect tools for cultivation. Ellie is to the point where she says to me, "Daddy, go through the commercials." Sure, I love to watch the last quarter of my favorite college football games live. There are magic moments in college football when I want to feel like I'm at the Big House in Michigan or at the Horseshoe in Columbus with 100,000 of my closest friends, but I can also reinsert an hour of family time into my schedule by taping the event and catching up along the way. In the mean time, no beer commercials, no sex commercials, so just for the today, just for the moment, I can control the conversation. I can control the content. Technology is often times an amoral advancement, and it takes creativity and perseverance to make it work for us as Christians, so we should bend the trend that technology is racing past us too quickly and harness those things that can allow our families to benefit. Finally, here is a great link released on 9/15 about the impact that our changing technology is having on society

-Bob Dillon

Parenting Page: Needing Help

This morning I arrived at preschool, late as usual. As I started to pile my kids out of the car, wishing it was legal to leave children in an unattended vehicle, my mind started making the list of all the things I’d forgotten in our rush out the door.:

“I forgot that form I was supposed to fill out…Oh, and I still never brought in his change of clothes….Ahh, I never did cut Tyler’s nails…they look dirty again. The teachers are going to think I never bathe him…When was the last time I bathed him?… Will I ever be on top of things?…I just need to be more organized when I leave the house…I just need to get up earlier…I really shouldn’t have yelled at Tyler when we were leaving…Will I ever leave the house without barking in frustration at one of my children?…my teeth feel gross…I forgot to brush my teeth again…at least I showered this morning…that’s why I’m late…I really should get up earlier…I always thought I was going to be that mom that looked super cute and stylish as she dropped her children off, all in their matching outfits…Is that egg in Grayson’s hair?…”

My internal monologue was cut short as I looked to see that as I was pulling one child out of their car seat, a friend was on the other side of my van helping my other child out of his. Without having to be asked, this friend was there making it possible for me to keep moving. It seems like such a little thing, but this simple act of community made me feel incredibly cared for. I thought of it multiple times today. As much as I would love to have it all together, it is such a blessing to need help.


-Kim Janous

Jesus and Sexual Power

We know that she is a sinner (Luke 7:37, 39). Culturally at that time, this most likely means that her sin was of a notorious and sexual nature. Was she a prostitute? If so, was it by choice or of the tragic result of poverty? Was it that she loved the power her body gives her with men? Or was she mentored by the men and women in her life to believe herself a trinket for use? We don't know. What we know is that she had become "that sort of woman." Which means that she was accustomed to "that sort of man."

How that sort of man views that sort of woman is well described in the song, "The most beautiful woman in the room" by the Flight of the Conchords. She is the most beautiful woman "in the room, in the whole wide room" and is useful for his bodily hopes that night. That sort of man uses her in a way well-captured by the hit show, "The Office."

Roy: (Katy walks through the breakroom) Man, I would be all over that if I wasn't dating Pam.

Pam: We're engaged, not dating.

Roy: Engaged, yeah.

As Kerry Cohen notes in her memoir of sexual promiscuity, "Boys have to put forth real effort to get laid, while all (girls) have to do is stand braless in the wind." I don't know what made this woman in Luke 7, choose to use her body for male attention. But I do know that if she was willing to let them buy her a drink, or laugh at their jokes or show some of her skin, she could have all the attention from that sort of man that she wanted. Truth be told, any of us can, any time. Bowing to "that sort" of life is possible daily.

But, Jesus confronts another "sort" of man in this passage. In contrast to the irreligious men who use her body for their pleasure and whom she uses for her own, the religious men look but do not touch. Jesus spoke about them in the Sermon on the Mount. They believe that it is a sin to commit adultery and so they harshly judge this woman. But Jesus looks into their hearts. They too might think her physically pretty. They too might lust in their hearts. This lust makes their religious hearts of the same stuff as the hearts of the irreligious men. They pretend they have no notice of physical attractiveness. Therefore they seek to put her down with no hope for change. She will always be a woman of "that sort" to them.

Jesus confronts both sorts of men and this sort of woman. Unlike these men and that woman, Jesus connects her body to her dignity (do you see this woman?) and to her story (she has many sins, but she loves much). The irreligious male whistles, flatters and uses. The religious man doesn't touch but niether does he offer an alternative or rescue. Jesus neither flatters nor abandons. Rather, he looks at her without lust. He calls her to affirm that her weeping is right and good. That her dignity and her story matter. She has faith, love and forgiveness. These truths are hers to own when foolish men abound and wait for her to flatter them with her flirtations. These truths are hers when religious men only see where she has been and pay no attention to what Christ is doing. These truths are hers when she finds true love, when flashbacks and memories of other bodies and shadows of other sexual or flirtatious moments intrude until healed.

Imagine a bride walking down the aisle. Imagine a man locking eyes on her to flatter her and bring her to flirt with him as she tries to fix her gaze on her husband. Most all of us would cuss at the thought, outraged with the idea. Isn't this because we all realize in this picture what we long for? We long for a recognition of beauty that is more than skin and that guards and protects true love. Why then, the next day, when the bride and groom are wearing jeans, do we indulge the thought of what they would look like naked? Why can't we leave them alone and mind our own business?

Music Monday: Pop Poetry

I am often frustrated with my humanness. My need for help, my inability to control things or to know what is coming. How frequently I make mistakes, hurt those I love, doubt those who love me. Whether one believes in a Savior or not, it seems to be innate knowledge that we as humans are lacking. Our endeavors won't ever be perfect, in motivation or in execution. It's confusing, it's frustrating. Paul described it like this: "For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing." Romans 7:18,19

Carolina Liar describes it like this:

Show Me What I'm Looking For

Wait, I'm wrong
Should have done better than this
Please, I'll be strong
I'm finding it hard to resist
So show me what I'm looking for

CHORUS
Save me, I'm lost
Oh lord, I've been waiting for you
I'll pay any cost
Save me from being confused
Show me what I'm looking for
Show me what I'm looking for…oh lord

Don't let go
I've wanted this far too long
Mistakes become regrets
I've learned to love abuse
Please show me what I'm looking for

CHORUS
Save me, I'm lost
Oh lord, I've been waiting for you
I'll pay any cost
Save me from being confused
Show me what I'm looking for
Show me what I'm looking for…oh lord

Show me what I'm looking for
Show me what I'm looking for
Show me what I'm looking for

CHORUS
Save me, I'm lost
Oh lord, I've been waiting for you
I'll pay any cost
Just save me from being confused
Wait, I'm wrong
I can't do better than this
I'll pay any cost
Save me from being confused
Show me what I'm looking for
Show me what I'm looking for
Show me what I'm looking for
Show me what I'm looking for…oh lord

Movie Review: District 9

Rated: R
Cast: Sharlto Copley, Jason Cope, Nathalie Boltt
Director: Neil Blomkamp

I went to see District 9 a few weeks ago by myself - which is one of my favorite pastimes. I pay attention differently. The speed of the movie - District 9 is pretty fast - is easier for me to get used to. I don't have to share food ("JOEY DOESN'T SHARE FOOD").

I was thoroughly impressed with District 9. If you don't know, it is a movie about an alien ship that comes to Earth, but not to invade or colonize. The closest approximation I have seen to it is Alien Nation. A human, who is in charge of relocating the Aliens, once the city of Johannesburg (maybe an overly obvious choice - but Blomkamp is from S. Africa) is tired of their proximity, becomes infected with an alien liquid and is forced to live in their shanties. There is more to the movie of course, but I do not want to give it away. Maybe it is about 'isms'. District 9 is certainly about people and their/our darkness. It is about the potential of one man or woman to do the right thing. And, it might be about the consequences of all of those things coming together - quickly. I will say this, instead of 'what will the aliens do to us?', District 9 is about what we might do to them. And, it is a "disturbingly plausible" movie in that regard.

The movement is fast, but you will not lose the story. The acting is superb. District 9 begins as a pseudo-documentary, and moves into full blown Sci-Fi somewhere in the middle. The ending drags a bit, but you soon understand why. And all of us who have seen will eagerly anticipate District 10.

I am trying to constantly ask the question of our blog authors, "What does it mean to be a Christian and like ____________." Miles Davis, Bon Iver, American Idol, Mad Men (My favorite)... When ought we to not like these things? How do we place our Christian posture/gestures/worldview on top of these cultural things? Okay, I did that, now what?

I loved District 9. The story is a good one. There was a lot of cussing. It is unclear if the aliens (subtitled) or the humans cuss more. But, is it bad to cuss in the face of such hate? Is it, in fact, unhealthy to cuss when one is fully disoriented. Many people die in the movie (although not nearly as many as you might have thought for an "alien movie"). But, is it bad for evil men to be killed? Or, is it destructive to see good men/creatures die and be reminded that this happens every day around our world - and probably in our backyard more than we realize or are told?

I recommend seeing District 9. If graphic violence disturbs you, then maybe not. However, it is not gratuitous violence. I recommend the conversation that belongs next to District 9 about the nature of man, the role of individuals, and the simple fact that time, fatigue, and limits can make cowards of us all.

A Mother's Letter. From God

"At times we watch helplessly and somewhat mutely as our lives or the lives of people love are so devastated by the result of living in a fallen world that we can do nothing but cry out to God in pain and sorrow. God's response to my cries was this impression of his voice in my heart, first to me personally, three years prior and then again to me FOR Erin. It was one of the deepest comforts he gave to me as a woman and as a mom. Sometimes we just need to hear him share the gospel with us in the midst of deep pain so that we can cry out with Job, "I know that my redeemer lives!" Following are his words that I shared with my hurting, precious, amazing girl.

October 9, 2007

Erin,
I have had this thought on my heart since last Saturday and know that it was spoken into my heart by God. He originally spoke in a very similar way a few years back… to me. Now I know, this time, it is… for you.

“Erin, I have pursued you since you came into this world. You were wanted and loved by parents, parents who often did not know how to love you, how to get to that place deep in your heart that was restless and hungering.
You pursued others, girlfriends and boys, but they never could get to that place either. Yet, each time you tried to make them the answer you gave pieces of yourself away.

The more you sought to fill that place deep in your heart, the deeper it became. This created restlessness in you and a fear that this would never change. Yet, at the same time this deep abyss in your heart frightened you, so did allowing others into it.
Meanwhile Erin, I’ve waited. Crying for you on the sidelines of your life, watching you from the sidelines, but always just one step away. Just like the others, if you sensed Me too close, you stepped away.

I think that you’ve known all along that if you completely give yourself to Me, I will forever change you and that scares you. I designed and created you so I would never change the very essence of who you are. I would never mar My own work of art, My poem, My beauty.

Others may willingly take from you or even unwittingly do so. However, I have been waiting to take you into My arms and let all of My love and power, Sorrow and tears, and beauty and grace flow into and fill that place in your heart.
I will never leave you, even if you leave Me, for however long. I will never tire of you or lose patience with you, nor My desire for you.

You were worth Me letting My heart be ripped out of Me and bleed . You were worth Me letting go of My child. Letting Him go into the hands of confused, scared, angry people that took His beauty and marred it and then hung it on that cross displayed in the cruelest of deaths. You were worth Me turning My back on Him at the moment He most needed Me and pleaded My Father’s arms to save and hold Him. “My God, My God! Why have You forsaken Me?!”


You were worth all of My resurrection power being emptied into My dead Son’s body, to give you the opportunity to let Me in to your life.
Erin, I didn’t do all of this just for you to have “someday Heaven”. No, I did it for now, a heaven on earth life. The very life you’ve looked for to fill that place deep in your heart.

Erin, you are worth all of this and you are worth waiting for. I have been pursuing you for your entire life. I love you…I yearn for you…I’ll wait forever. All of this is because I Am Who I Am…this is My very nature…I cannot deny the very essence of Who I am. I am Love fierce and passionate and powerful enough to hold and keep you forever. Amen”

P.S.- Erin, do you remember that your name means “peace”? What you seek is one step away…I believe you are moving towards that Peace and He is waiting with open arms… Mama

-Marsha Lang

Parenting Page: Linking

While we will continue to use this blog for parenting stories, Riverside has a new blog that will interact with the past week's sermon. Check it out - especially if you have kids.

Debating in America

By the people and for the people... These are words at the foundation of democracy in America, and over the past few months, these seven words have taken center stage during the debate over health care and climate change. As much talk has circulated, I have been taking some time to reflect on the bigger issue of federalism as it applies to a number of things including church structure and organization.

Realizing that wars have been fought over this topic (Civil War), I tread carefully. Federalism in my mind is about a philosophy how the contract or covenant of the people entering into a structure or organization should operate. In its simplest terms, how much power should the individual have versus how much power should the governing body have. Over the years, organized religion has seemed to take its greatest knocks from being overly oppressive from the top. This has resulted in cases of corruption, abuse, and other sins that creep into organizations that lose focus on the will of the people. One would hope that the push back and lessons to be learned from religion's storied past would be a rush to the middle ground where a balanced approach between a strong church leadership that provides a focused mission, vision, and programming while still honoring the desires and ideas of the congregation would emerge. Instead, a number of contemporary churches seem to have bounced from one pole to the other creating an organic environment that respects and supports the ideas of its members without a leadership core that glues the congregation together in a way that creates common cause and cultivates common culture. This type of structure doesn't seem like it can be effective either as it would fall into the trappings of structures like the European Union and our own nation's articles of confederation http://www.constitution.org/cons/usa-conf.htm which honor individualism to the point of generating gridlock, failed consensus building, and no forward momentum. Whether it is a debate about health care, climate change or church structure, balance seems to be essential. Finding this balance isn't easy, but it requires leadership willing to engage with everyone about the need for freedom and common mission as concepts that harmoniously coexist in productive tension with each other. It seems that then and only then will new churches emerge that redraw the boundaries and bring new life to their Gospel-driven missions.

-Bob Dillon

Reforming Culture/Making Culture

There will always be arguments about culture that range from the number of reality TV shows on the air at any given time, to the academic dissemination of mores and belief from the university level into the dominant 'culture'. Similarly, Christians have been arguing about how to 'do' culture, what to make of it, etc. since the beginning of Christianity.

A 20th century writer named H. Richard Niebuhr gave five categories for thinking about culture that are broad enough to help us think about it, and narrow enough to actually explain some of how we ought to then live - in regards to 'culture'. In summary:

Christ against Culture. For the exclusive Christian, history is the story of a rising church or Christian culture and a dying pagan civilization.

Christ of Culture. For the cultural Christian, history is the story of the Spirit’s encounter with nature.

Christ above Culture. For the synthesist, history is a period of preparation under law, reason, gospel, and church for an ultimate communion of the soul with God.

Christ and Culture in Paradox. For the dualist, history is the time of struggle between faith and unbelief, a period between the giving of the promise of life and its fulfillment.

Christ Transforming Culture. For the conversionist, history is the story of God’s mighty deeds and humanity’s response to them. Conversionists live somewhat less “between the times” and somewhat more in the divine “now” than do the followers listed above. Eternity, to the conversionist, focuses less on the action of God before time or life with God after time, and more on the presence of God in time. Hence the conversionist is more concerned with the divine possibility of a present renewal than with conservation of what has been given in creation or preparing for what will be given in a final redemption.

Typically, churches like Riverside have taken the fifth option. Now, there are issues with such broad categories. For instance, we (Riverside) would call ourselves 'Reformed' after the Reformers of the 16th century. Well, they certainly didn't agree on this, and Martin Luther is probably in the "Christ and Culture in paradox" camp.

ANYWAY, Riverside has a few programs that come out of our thinking on this topic. The Art Gallery: which exists for art and artists; with sub-hopes about what happens when a church is so fully behind such aspects of culture. On Tap: which exists for an almost naive belief in the power of conversation and dialogue; with similar sub-hopes.

The goal is to promote art and conversation. The assumption is that those two things are not easy to promote. The further assumption is that Christianity ought to bear weight in those places - but that that conversation is a long one, and one that probably begins with a lot of learning and listening. I hope you will join us with an openness to great art, great conversation. And then, to learn together what it means to observe Christianly (art), and to dialogue Christianly about Health Care (our September topic), or movies, or good food.

Thoughts???

Discuss...

-Matt Blazer