Yearly Archives:

2010

trinity

Once Upon A Time…

…there was a woman who set out to discover the meaning of life. First, she read everything she could get her hands on–history, philosophy, psychology, religion. While she became a very smart person, nothing she read gave her the answer she was looking for.  She found other smart people and asked them about the meaning of life, but while their discussions were long and lively, no two of them agreed on the same thing and still she had no answer.

Finally, she put all her belongings in storage and set off in search of the meaning of life. She went to South America.  She went to India.  Everywhere she went, people told her they did not know the meaning of life, but they had heard of a man who did, only they were not sure where he lived.  She asked about him in every country on earth until finally, deep in the Himalayas, someone told her how to reach his house–a tiny little hut perched on the side of a mountain just below the tree line.

She climbed and climbed to reach his front door. When she finally got there, with knuckles so cold they hardly worked, she knocked.

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Churches

Small Churches Are The Next Big Thing

small church

Brandon J. O’Brien at Christianity Today’s Out of Ur blog, has a really interesting thought about the future of small churches.  The perception is that small churches are dying and are even the reason why Christianity is waning. However, O’Brien pulls from a number of sources to explain why the small church might be the next big movement:

In a conversation last week about the virtues of small churches, a pastor friend of mine, Chuck Warnock, quoted a passage from John Zogby’s 2008 book The Way We’ll Be: The Zogby Report on the Transformation of the American Dream (Random House). Zogby prophesies that “The church of the future will be a bungalow on Main Street, not a megastructure in a sea of parking spaces. It’s intimacy of experience that people long for, not production values.”

On the face of it, I couldn’t be more pleased with that prediction. I’ve pastored two small congregations and am now a member and deacon in another, where my wife serves on staff. My experience with these churches has led me to believe that small congregations are uniquely positioned to carry the gospel into the world in the 21st century. Few things would make me happier than if the “next big thing” in Christian ministry conversations was the small church.

Interesting take.  Certainly, the Emergent Movement has taught us that small churches can do big things and reach people previously thought to be “unreachable.”  Also, “house churches” have been known to start mega churches because of their simplicity and small community.

O’Brien also says there is a danger involved with small churches:

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Pentecost

Pentecost? Whatcha talkin’ bout?

The 1980’s a sitcom, “Diff’rent Strokes” chronicled a family life of a wealthy white industrialist who adopts two African American children. This show gave us  one of the classic lines of that decade.  One of the show’s main character, Arnold, played by Gary Coleman would often say, in a deep voice, “Whatcha you talkn’ about Willis?” to his television brother with a confused look on his face.  Check out the video clip here:

As we celebrate Pentecost this Sunday, we often want to run past the details because they are so crazy!  Fire, wind, xenoglossia, prophesy, dreams, and tongues!  Whatcha talkin’ bout?!?  This is crazy!  What the heck is going on?

Most Christians take the “Whatcha talkn’ bout” approach to this whole business of Pentecost, speaking in tongues, and the out pouring of the Holy Spirit.  Do we need to speak in tongues in order to be filled with the Holy Spirit?  What can we make of this event in scripture?

Here is what you need to know about Pentecost:

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blog

One Year of Blogging

Well, it has been exactly one year of blogging today!  I have come a long way since my first post on “escapism”.  After 23, 107 hits on this blog, I want to thank everyone for reading and coming back. This blog created many wonderful opportunities for me, which included a platform to write a manuscript for a book, blogging for the Times Union, and connecting with other bloggers.

Look for a post on Pentecost tomorrow.  Check out my post from  last year’s Pentecost in which I wrote about being on fire… literally.

Here’s to another year of being “On the Bema.”

Culture

3 Reasons Why the Nashville Flood Went Unnoticed

Nashville: Known for country music and… flooding?  It seems like few people are talking about it and few news organizations are covering it. Even though over 20 inches of rain flooded this growing city, 30 people died, the clean up will cost billions, and the city will take years to recover. Normally, that is cause for major media coverage (remember the floods in Iowa a few years back?)  Certainly, the flooding of Nashville and surrounding areas are not on par with the devastation of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, but does that matter?  Yes and no. No matter the disaster, people need help. No matter how great or small the loss of life, supplies and funds are needed.

It’s clear that this story has not been in the news that much.  Did you know celebrities like Miley Cyrus and Nicole Kidman held a Nashville Flood Relief Telethon? Most did not see it or even hear about it. Did you know it could be one of the most expensive disasters in US history?   With such a need for help in Nashville it is clear the message needs to get out.  So, why haven’t we heard about the Nashville flood?

Here are three reasons why the Nashville flood went largely unnoticed by Americans and the media:

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ascension

The Art of the Goodbye

Everyone was welcomed to Fantasy Island, but everyone had to say “goodbye”

No one likes to say goodbye, but we all have to do it. The act of saying goodbye, say to a friend, family member, or loved one after a visit is difficult.  You want to stay, but you have to go. It’s hard to say goodbye, but some of us are better at it then others. You could say that to master the perfect “goodbye” is an art form.  Being able to say “bye” without leaving people feeling sad is a skill.

In some cultures, kissing, hugging, crying, or embracing is all normal in the course of the goodbye.  The least favorite type of goodbye is the long one.  You know, the drawn out, emotional, and chatty goodbye where it takes an hour to get five feet out the door.

Believe it or not, there is a guide for everything.  The website “EHow.com” lets people post practical and technical information on how to do things. One person has added a very funny step by step post on “How to say goodbye Southern Style.”  In the final step, the follow advice is offered in order to seal the deal:

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worship

Taizé: What you are missing

For the past 10 years, I have been interested in Taizé. If you have never heard of Taizé you are missing out.  What is Taizé?  Well, that is a long story.  The short story is that Taizé is a small village in France where Brother Roger founded an ecumenical Christian community of prayer, song, study, service, reflection, worship, and solitude for young people over 70 years ago.  The community was founded as a protestant community and not a Catholic organization. Taizé music and worship is simplistic but deeply spiritual.  You most likely have heard a song or sung a Taizé song in church and never realized it.

For the past few weeks, I have enjoyed reading A Community Called Taizé by Jason Brian Santos.  Santos covers his experience with Taizé and pens about the greater spiritual community of Taizé, France.  The book begins with the grim death of the community’s founder, Brother Roger, but quickly moves into describing the whole experience of visiting Taizé.  As the reader walks with Santos, you immediately get the feeling that you would have similar reactions coming the Taizé community.  Having visited France in 1998, I can tell you that the feeling of culture shock is real and alarming: new food, new places, new language, new surroundings, new culture, new customs, and new… well, just about everything. Santos continues into the who, what, where, why, and how of the community.

As I am learning more about the community of Taizé, I am also listening to the music. The music and worship of Taizé is powerful.  Why?  Here are the 5 most powerful aspects of Taizé that you are missing out on:

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blog, Tony Campolo

Tony Campolo Coming to Albany

Tony looks pretty “hip” here.

2010 Come Alive and Thrive PDF

Session 1, 2: May 21, 2010 Session 3: May 22, 2010.  First Church Albany, NY

Click here to register.

Tony Campolo was a professor at Eastern University (it was a college when I matriculated) when I was a student and I attended many of lectures and talks.  He taught in my sociology class the final year of full time service to the college.  That year, he retired from teaching full time and became a professor emeritus at Eastern.  From time to time, I would bump into him walking on campus, in the gym playing basketball (with his grandson), at the seminary, or in the hallways and he would always entertain a little conversation with me.

Tony was the reason why I went to Eastern.  I heard him speak at a District of Columbia Baptist Convention meeting in November of 1995 and said to myself, “I want to be at the school he teaches!”  After talking with him after the meeting, he encouraged me to come to Eastern. (James Dunn made a similar proposal that night for Wake Forest University, but I turned him down. Sorry James.)

You can anticipate hearing his unique perspective on what the church may look like in the coming decade and how it can address issues of the modern world while remaining faithful to core values and beliefs. How can the church remain relevant, energized, pro-active and connected? How can the church thrive and be significant in an ecumenical and diverse world?

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prayer

Mother’s Day Prayer

Prayer for Mothers

Leader: Mothers come in diverse portraits, and today we celebrate the gifts of the spirit we readily observe in these portraits.

All: Thank God for mothers!

Leader: Each of us is a son or a daughter.

All: Thank God for my mother!

Leader: For women who have gone before us and left us legacies of love, endurance, and inspiration.

All: Thank God for the women we commemorate in our hearts and lives.

Leader: For every woman currently working to nurture, teach, and love her children.

All: Thank God for the mothers of today.

Leader: For women who have made children their own through adoption or foster care.

All: Thank God for women who know motherhood is unbounded.

Leader: For women who mourn the death of a child.

All: Thank God for grieving mothers who depend on God’s love.

Leader: For all women, with or without children, who have extended their gifts of nurture and affirmation to members of their communities.

All: Thank God for women who are mothers by heart! We thank you, Lord, for women who have influenced our lives in so many ways.

Mother’s Day Prayer

faith

Rivers of Faith

Continuing my theme of music on Fridays, I couldn’t get a song out of my head when I was thinking about this blog post. “Rivers of Babylon” is a song written and recorded by Brent Dowe and Trevor McNaughton of The Melodians in 1972, and popularized mainly by Boney M.’s cover version in 1978.  Boney M.’s version is the most popular because of its Caribbean sound.  Check out the totally 70’s music video complete with 1970’s camera work.  The Boney M. version is even sung in churches.

The group, Barefoot Truth has a great version of it as well:

The lyrics are important. The lyrics are:

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christians

Is Western Christianity Suffering From Spiritual Amnesia?

This is part of a post by Diana Butler Bass, “Is Western Christianity Suffering From Spiritual Amnesia?”

In the 1990s, I taught history and theology at an evangelical college, a place where the students were serious young Christians. One day, lecturing on the medieval church and the Crusades, I explained how in 1095 Pope Urban II launched a holy war against Muslims. Most of the students took notes. One young woman, looking very worried by the idea of Christians starting a war, shot up her hand. “Professor,” she began, clearly wanting to blame Roman Catholics for the affair, “what did the Protestants say about this?”

“Well,” I answered slowly, “there were no Protestants in 1095.” I did not have the heart to tell her that Protestantism would not exist until more than four hundred years later.

Puzzled, she blurted out, “But where were they?”

The best quote of the article:

At the present juncture of history, Western Christianity is suffering from a bad case of spiritual amnesia. Even those who claim to be devout or conservative often know little about the history of their faith traditions.

So true.  Especially for Baptists.  We think we are the only church to exist since the time of Christ. I bet you 20% of Baptists think John the Baptist was the first Baptist!

Bass continues:

Our loss of memory began more than two centuries ago, at the high tide of the Enlightenment. As modern society developed, the condition of broken memory — being disconnected from the past — became more widespread. Indeed, in the words of one French Catholic thinker, the primary spiritual dilemma of contemporary religion is the “loss and reconstruction” of memory.

via Is Western Christianity Suffering From Spiritual Amnesia? – Diana Butler Bass – God’s Politics Blog.

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