Last person on the bandwagon

One of my favorite aspects of music is the shear amount of content out there.  So much music, so little time.  The other day I was included in an e-mail chain that involved several people being very excited that Josh Ritter is coming to town this summer.  I suppose I have been under a folk music rock for the past few years because this was the first I had ever heard of the man.  This youtube clip is the first thing I found from him via the google.  I think it is fantastic so I want share it with you.

I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.  If you did he will be at Off Broadway on July 28th. Unfortunately I will be in Jefferson City taking the bar exam - boo.

WJFB???

An interesting thought crossed my mind the other day. What would Jesus' Facebook page look like? One would think that the great communicator that he was/is would be tapping into all of the available options to get his message to the masses. Facebook would seem to be an obvious choice for our God to communicate with his people. How many friends would Jesus have? Would there be people that wouldn't respond to his friend request? What about God's status updates? Do you think that he would be the person that updated ten or twenty times a day or once a week? I would imagine seeing things like... Surprised by the lack of attention to the genocide in Dafur, wishing I could answer some more prayers, or being omniscience makes for a hungry omnivore. How about the Causes ap? Who would be the organization that Jesus would call on the support for? Who would he be a fan of? Hopefully, he would be a Cardinals fan. Would Jesus' Facebook page have a lot of photos? Photos often depict the beauty in the world, and he certainly has a lot of beautiful things to show off. I would imagine that it would be a lot of sunsets and naturescapes. Do you think that God would interface Twitter and Facebook so that they would talk to each other? If he could post 140 words of wisdom each day wouldn't that feel great. Do you think that God could post a video of the big bang or some of the creation of the world? It would probably get a lot of hits. I would imagine that there would be some friends that Jesus would have to hide their posts, maybe too information or a reminder about how frustrating we sinners are. Our social media universe is one that has many people putting their toes in to check out whether it is for them or not, and thinking how doing social media in a respectful Christian way may mean reflecting on some of the questions above because if we are to work to mirror our lives with the values and actions of Christ, then Facebook is another important place for us to check ourselves against our true intentions.

-Dr. Robert Dillon

Books and Parenting

I have an addiction. I am addicted to books. I am not addicted to novels or biographies or anything that can help me relax or escape from my life for a little, I wish that I were. I am addicted to self-help books. If you were to look at my bookshelves, you would probably get a good laugh at the various titles, most of them only half-read if even read at all.

When I became a parent, the addiction was easily fed. There are thousands of books on parenting and I was sure I needed to read them all. A moment came, when Grayson was in his second month of intense colic, that I realized my insane expectation of learning and knowing everything in those books. Grayson came out of the womb screaming and he didn’t stop for 3 1/2 months. In my mind, I could fix it. If I tried the right technique, ate the right foods, prayed the right way surely he would stop. The moment of turning back from my craziness came the day I went to the library to pick up the books I had requested. I tried to walk out of the library with Tyler at my side, the baby carrier in one hand and at least 8 large books in the other. The vision of all those books stacked on the counter was one I’ll never forget. How was I going to carry all those books out much less read them, and why? What was I really trying to accomplish?

Well, it’s been two years since then and God has revealed so much of what I really was trying to accomplish: control, appearance, success, significance, etc. Motherhood has rocked my world. It has revealed much of my sinful nature, it has brought out sides of me I didn’t know existed, and it has brought me to my knees in need of a Savior.

In future blogs I plan to talk more about what this journey has been and continues to be like for me. How God is revealing more of my need for him and how he is meeting me and my children in my weakness. The main theme has been this: God is God; I am not.

I never read all 8 of those books. It was a defining moment in my life when I put the first book down and rested in not knowing how to help my child, not knowing how to be the best mother, not knowing all the answers. I still struggle to gain control every day. Every day I fight the thoughts that tell me I’m failing as a mother. Every day I have to choose to believe that God is God over my children and that he will cover all my humanness and sin…and sometimes I can read a good book now with perspective.


-Kim Janous

Why I still Love Lost

So we’ve just ended the fifth season of the masterfully created, JJ Abrahms conceived, ABC hit drama “Lost” and with one more season left, I continue to find myself drawn to the story and the characters that have made the show so great. If you haven’t watched the show, I don’t have enough words allowed in this posting to go into detail on the shows’ plot, characters or episodes. If you are the least bit curious, I’d simply recommend renting the series from the very first episode and see if you want to stay along for the ride. If you don’t like the show, good for you. I’m sure a nice Hallmark original or Lifetime movie is just waiting for you to pick it up. Not that the show is necessarily for the faint of heart. You need to be ok with human drama, a bit of sci-fi, and ridiculous and sometimes ill-concieved plot twists. But rest assured, it’s worth it. Enough of the setup…

We are all flawed …

For those of you who know and have watched the show. You know that, unlike traditional literature of old, “Lost” breaks the mold a bit. The characters (much like in X-Men comics for instance) are all flawed. They’re all flawed so much that by the end of this season, the lines are so blurred, you are not sure who the protagonist and the antagonists are anymore. I guess I like that because it’s a nice dose of real life. While we all envision ourselves on one side of the line or the other, I think the Gospel more clearly helps us understand that we spend our days being both the hero and the villain minute by minute. What helps us separate the good guys from the bad guys eventually is that (similar to the Gospel), the characters who end up the heros, are those who have found ways to accept their limitations, to acknowledge their mistakes (not necessarily always with words) and to are typically focused on thinking about the welfare of the others in their care often above their own needs or desires.

Our story reveals a deeper insight to our character…

The characters in Lost are each introduced to us in the early seasons by back-stories of their life before the plane crash (oops.. sorry for the spoiler.. yes.. alright.. so it’s about a plane crash). The show allows us to create some ideas, many of them – false conceptions as we learn about what made them the way they are. I remember how much I hated “Sawyers’ character on the show early on, because of his arrogance and selfishness, but once we learn about the “how” he became who he was and the bigger picture, it allowed me to empathize with his agony over the wounds that helped to mold those traits in him. How often do I make quick judgements about people in the store, on the street, in my church, at my work or even in my own family where I’ve failed to take the time to understand their circumstances? Jesus loved to demonstrate how to love the unloveable. He took time to speak with the woman at the well and to know her, and he loved her despite her sin, because he understood what was behind the shame. I don’t know about you, but I want to know that kind of compassion and empathy.

We need Absolute Direction…

The main tactical issue that the “Lost” survivors face is that their physical absolute direction is broken. Literally the magnetic energy from the island’s core makes compasses fail to work. In parallel we see the principal characters each driven by a sense of their own idea of what the right way, or what their purpose is. The reality is, they are all so confused and try as they may to rectify their circumstances, (because they can’t agree on a physical, emotional or even geographical direction) they have remained “Lost” for more than 5 seasons. What does that say about our own hearts? What does that say about our own tolerance of western relativistic dogma that “What’s right for you, might not be right for me?” We need a compass that works. Something that we can all clearly agree is pointing in the right direction. Sorry to cram the metaphor down your throat, but you get my point.

Though I’m a Christian, I’m still a deeply flawed, overly judgmental and often day by day directionless and a forgetful “survivor”. But… fortunately I do have a compass that works. Do I look at it often? Do I trust that even though there’s a gigantic chasm between where I am and where it’s pointing to, that it’s still going to lead me home? Not always. But ironically the more I rely on it, the closer I get to where I need to be.

PS – For those of you who I confused on the whole “Compass” analogy. The “Compass” = Jesus/ the Bible / the Holy Spirit… alright. Sheesh!

Josh Hogan

What Difference Does It Make?

If you were able to come to Riverside yesterday, you would have heard a sermon on Resurrection. We specifically looked at one of the fundamental Christian beliefs, namely the Resurrection of people. I know that some will immediately be turned-off to this post by the topic alone. I can understand why such a belief looks ridiculous outside of a worldview that holds to Christian Theism. For that matter, what we talked about yesterday may have been “hard to stomach” for those within such a worldview!

My point in this post is to say something I didn’t get to say yesterday. It deals with a “So What?” reality that every “preacher” must deal with when they speak. Sometimes this is easier to do than at other times, depending on the topic itself. Nevertheless, I would be remiss if I were to leave the impression that something as wonderful as Resurrection was not practical. Asked positively, “What’s the big deal anyway? What difference does it make that those who follow Jesus will one day rise to a bodily existence?”

While the implications of such a belief are vast and broad, I want to start with just one. I’ll ask the question, “Why do we do what we in life? What motivates us?” It seems to me that, more times than not, what motivates us is what happens at the end. Even at the most basic level for example, those of us who have jobs we may work—if for nothing else—just to have a paycheck. My assumption, here, is that we often do things in the present for the hope of what’s to come. [Just FYI, for the theology student who reads this, don’t hear what I’m not saying. I am not trying to communicate some sort of works-based salvation. That’s a topic for another post at another time.]

We spoke yesterday that orthodox Christianity has affirmed since the beginning that there would be a bodily resurrection (as opposed to a disembodied ghostly one); and, these remade, perfected bodies would live in a physical world (not like fat, angel babies floating on clouds, playing harps). I turn now to why this really matters and I do so by raising a point that somebody else raises. This pastor/scholar asserts an interesting historical reality that took place in England during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. He said that it was at this point in time that “English evangelicals gave up believing in the urgent imperative to improve society”. Do you know why? “They gave up believing robustly in [a bodily] resurrection and settled for a disembodied heaven.”[1]

This is absolutely fascinating and it makes complete sense (at least to me)! Why would those who follow Jesus “give a rip” about the needs of people (which in some way could be justified to relieve immediate suffering) and the world in which they live if both (the people and the world) were headed to an end that was completely devoid of physicality? But, on the other hand, since the Christian Hope is not less than, but actually more, physical than what we experience now (read C.S. Lewis’ The Last Battle for helpful imagery here), then part of living Christian-ly is to affirm the goodness of physicality in the here and now. But, Jesus himself won’t let us stop at mere affirmation; He always call us into participation. In other words, Christians are called to live in this world in such a way that it mimics the world to come. In some “mysterious” way—I don’t quite have this all worked out yet—when we “improve society” (to steal Wright’s term) with this sort of motivation, is to participate in the business of Heaven itself! That’s staggering to me.

What are your thoughts on this? How would we live differently since these things are true? Thanks for your thoughts.            

–Ryan

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[1] N.T. Wright, Surprised By Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church (New York: Harper One) 27.

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