Who Knows

Maybe it is because snow is in the forecast, or the Super Bowl being a week away, or Tiger dominating this weekend, or just because I'm a nice guy....but tonight I feel like being generous. Anyone who links to me, I'll link you right back. If you are thinking..."why on earth why would I want a link on your page"....I can think of no good reasons. But maybe you are in a good mood too and want to link up.

So there you go...link to me and I'll link back. If you are in a feed, you gotta come over here and send me an email or just give me a comment. If you already have a link and I know you...you won't get cut, don't worry.

Irresistible Revolution .8

Chapter 8 of Claiborne's book is titled "Jesus Made Me Do It." This chapter focuses on some of Shane's experiences upon his return from Iraq. It is essentially a chapter on living in our comfort zones.

In Philadelphia's Love Park, Shane would hang out with homeless folks and pass out food often. The city then passed a law making it illegal to sleep in the park, to ask for money in the park, and illegal to hand out food in the park. He pondered what it meant to submit to authority and still uphold to God's law of love. He answer this question by having a church service in the park. They sang and prayed and even shared in the breaking of bread and communion together. Soon after communion they continued by bringing in pizzas, and even after that everyone slept in the park overnight. During the night the police came and arrested everyone.

In court, Shane wore a shirt that said, "Jesus was homeless." The judge asked him about it and Shane quoted, "foxes have holes and birds have nests but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head." The judge later sided with Shane and his friends stating that "if it weren't for people who broke unjust laws, we wouldn't have the freedom that we have."

Shane ends the chapter by saying there are safer ways to live than by being a Christian. It was a radical love that Jesus brought to this earth and following it is a high calling.

I have one problem with all this. That is that it is far different to fight to have an unjust law removed then it is to purposely break the law. I just cannot think of how Shane saw this as submitting to authority and also honoring God.
That being said, he is right about Christianity not being easy. I experience easy Christianity everyday. Seminary, working at a church, being married to a Christian, and etc. This isn't reminiscent of the difficulties Jesus and the apostles encountered when bringing the message of good news to the world.

Fortuitous Bouncing

The talk of the week around here is about how cold it has been. Sure temperatures in the 20s and 30s is cold for here, but comparatively it is nothing. The Packers/Giants game was played in a wind chill in the -20s. My grandparents in Minnesota said they barely got above zero everyday for the past week. So to all Oregonians: it ain't cold.

1. This guy says politics and religion don't mix.
2. I've been a big Myspace hater for a while. I have an account that I hardly ever use and I have been looking for a reason to delete it and then I read this. I am pretty sure I might go along with this...should I?
3. Barack did a Q/A session with Christianity Today and they did ask the tough questions.
4. The Dem debate this week was so much better than last week.
   
5. Donald Miller had a cool article featured on CNN.com.
6. The same church that likes to protest Iraq war veteran funerals is planning to protest Heath Ledger's funeral. Anyone else want to show up and punch some people in the face?
7. The new Passion cd is coming out soon. SWEET!
8. Some good thoughts on how often to introduce new music in church.
9. A good blog on what Huckabee would need to do to win nomination.
   
10. This was the American Idol highlight of the week for me. Hands down. "I'm going to be the next World Idol." Haha.
    

Fridays are for New Music

It has been far too long since I've introduced you all to some new music. I am a big Hillsong fan. I hardly ever buy their albums though because there are just too many to keep up with. I usually wait to see what are the best 2 or 3 songs from each album and roll with those for congregational worship. Brooke Fraser is the newest addition to the Hillsong crew of Darlene, Marty, Joel and others. She wrote two great songs on United's latest album: Hosanna, Lead Me to the Cross. For those of you who know me...it takes a great woman vocalist for me to enjoy a female singer, and Brooke is that for sure. I work with Kyle, who is a worship pastor in Newberg, OR, and he told me about a song Brooke leads on the newest Hillsong cd. I checked it out and it is legit. It has been in my head all week. So enjoy the song and her talking about how it came to be. It is called "Lord of Lords."

Irresistible Revolution .7

Let's take a look at chapter 7 of Irresistible Revolution. This is easily my favorite chapter but is also probably the most controversial. Claiborne goes into detail about his thoughts on post 9/11 in America and also his time spent in Iraq after the war had begun.

Around 9/11 the media commended America for rallying together. Clairborne has a different take. He felt that conservatives rallied around war and liberals started protesting, but the cross was covered by the flag. Church community was lost for patriotism. "People longing for a savior placed their faith in the fragile hands of human logic and military strength, which have always let us down." He felt that 9/11 wasn't a tragedy of lost lives but of misplaced love towards the borders and allegiances of the world.

Claiborne went to Iraq because he felt that America was teaching the myth of redemptive violence: that it can produce good (Matthew 26:52). He went to Baghdad in March of 2003 where he spent a month. A powerful story he tells is after a church gathering of Catholics, Protestants, and Orthodoxes. The bishop who organized it talked to Shane about the Christian church in America. When Shane explained that many Americans supported the war so that Iraqis could be liberated the bishop said, "But we Christians do not believe that. We believe 'blessed are the peacemakers.' We believe if you pick up the sword, you die by the sword. We believe in the cross."

Some Iraqis Claiborne encountered referred to US leaders, such as George Bush, as "Christian extremists" while we consider all the terrorists "Muslim extremists".

Some thoughts:

1. Christian extremists seems quite a bit strong to me. The United States was originally attacked.
2. The last chapter talked a lot about how issues don't have faces for a lot of people. They lack a humanity. The war in Iraq is largely that way for me. Sure I have some friends who have been there on one or two tours of duty, but I don't know any Iraqis. It was this side of the war that had no face for me and a face that Claiborne brought light to.
3. I don't want this to be a forum for whether the war is just or not.
4. It scares me to think about the people who have been killed innocently in this war that believe in Jesus. Or even those who don't believe in Jesus but have nothing to do with this war. These people are just as real and alive as our neighbor.
5. The questions that this brings up are difficult for me to find answers to.
6. I wonder when Jesus would say it is ok to go to war.

Going Green

I was listening to Jim Rome on the radio today. He brought up some interesting information that was included in the divorce papers for Shaquille O'Neal and his now ex-wife. The biggest shocker of all the info was that he spends $24,000 on gas......a MONTH. Yeah...a month. I wonder how it is even possible to spend that much on gas.
Jim spends a lot of his show reading listener emails. Here are some in response to this that were hilarious. Enjoy.

Dear Jim-
That is a lot of gas. Can we invade him?

Regards,
W

Dear Jim-
We are glad that Shaq is supporting us.

-The Middle East

Irresistible Revolution .6

Chapter 6 of Shane Clairborne's Irresistible Revolution is titled "Economics of Rebirth." He gets started quickly by saying in the 2nd paragraph, "Layers of insulation separate the rich and the poor from truly encountering one another. There are obvious layers like picket fences and SUVs, and there are more subtle ones like charity. Tithes, tax-exempt donations, and short-term mission trips, while they accomplish some good, can also function as outlets that allow us to appease our consciences and still remain a safe distance from the poor."

He gives a quick discussion to the verse that most people use on this subject: "The poor will always be with you." Those are the words of Jesus. Claiborne believes the common exegesis of this verse is incorrect. It is usually taken to mean that there will always be poor people and that we need to focus on others. Claiborne says that Jesus is saying this in a leper's home after he has had his feet anointed with expensive perfume by a poor woman. The poor were all around Jesus when he said "the poor will always be with you." Claiborne believes this is a verse pointing the church to her true identity; that she should always be near those who suffer. Claiborne uses a great quote from Gandhi. Gandhi was often asked if he was a Christian. In response he would say, "Ask the poor. They will tell you who the Christians are."

Early Christians had a mindset that if a child starved while a Christian had extra food, they were guilty of murder. A lot of people have a problem with a gospel of prosperity and people have problems with a gospel of poverty, so Clairborne proposes a gospel of abundance rooted in a theology of enough. His main verses for this are Proverbs 30:8-9. As Gandhi says, "there is enough for everyone's need but not enough for everyone's greed."

I know in my own life that I have many layers of insulation that allow me to be comfortable. I guess I don't even know where or how to begin to break those down, which leaves me changing nothing.

Do You iGoogle?

I've been using Google stuff for a while. I remember getting Gmail and everyone asking what Gmail was. Lately I've moved into using Google Reader, Google Calender, Blogger, Google Books, Google Maps, and I could go on. If they ever move into creating hardware and software it could be scary because their stuff is that good. Try anything else in any of these categories and I guarantee Google's will be as good or better.

I'm not writing this to provide a guilt trip for those of you who haven't experienced this Google magic... instead I wanted to reference one of their newer ideas. This has put Google way over the top for me. It is iGoogle. It is basically a google homepage with whatever I want. I go to one web page and I get my email, rss feed (reader), calender, ESPN headlines, weather, news headlines, and anything else I want to add. Because I use so many Google programs I am able to have them all in one place with iGoogle. It is amazing. It has made me so much more efficient on the internet. If you aren't using this, you need to try it out.

From Sales to Ministry

One year ago today I started work here. I haven't worked there for over 7 months now. Most of the readers of this blog know about my decision to pursue a life in Christian ministry instead of business so I won't go into detail about this right now.

I remember my first day quite well even now. I showed up at 7am and met a lot of people. On Mondays we would have branch meetings. This consisted of all the sales managers on my team (most of which I didn't know yet) and the branch manager (who I had interviewed with). The meeting started at 7:30am.

It was the first day for me and one other girl. Our branch manager apologized to us for what we were going to hear...and what began was a expletive filled tirade about how poorly the team had been performing. It was lasted 15 minutes or so. He complained not so much the actual sales results but the work habits that were permeating the office. I didn't act shocked, but I was. I knew what I was getting into and that it was going to be a tough, no nonsense environment...but this was a strong welcome to the business world. Cuss words don't intimidate me but him yelling and throwing things was like the kind of things you see in movies. I thought wow...I guess it has begun already. That was my first day of after college "real world."

Have you ever had a rude awakening on the first day of a new job?

Irresistible Revolution .5

Chapter 5 of Irresistible Revolution gives an overview of the beginnings of the community that Claiborne helped start called The Simple Way. It is also an overview of his experiment of monasticism. He begins the chapter by telling us that Christians have not shown the world another way to live.

He talks a lot about the wording "come and see," a phrase that Mother Theresa would always use when people would ask about what she did. The only way he knows to invite people into the Christian faith is to invite them to come and see how they live at The Simple Way as they try to be an incarnation of the body.
Claiborne believes that helping the poor is considered commendable, but joining them is considered radical. Catholic bishop Dom Camara says, "When I fed the hungry, they called me a saint. When I asked why people are hungry, they called me a communist."

In American it is popular today to try and do church in a way like the early church. What I mean is that it is popular in ideology to try and do church like in Acts. Claiborne describes this as "the story of a people who were together and were of one heart and mind, sharing all in common." There aren't many churches today who want to approach church in a way like Acts presents...that "do" church like that.
As Claiborne describes the difference between most faith communities and The Simple Way he tells us that most communities only tell us what they believe, "but they do not tell us how their beliefs affect their lifestyle."

Most churches are known by their doctrine, not by the way they live. I wonder how we can change this, because I do see the importance and value of doctrines, but I also see how they confine churches into certain categories. I see doctrines as being important to believers but mostly unimportant when it comes to reaching the lost.