A new add to my blogroll, Pete Wilson, pastor of Cross Point Church in Nashville, TN got to hang out with CC DeVille of Poison and hear about his new life as a Jesus follower. Cool things about as the Kingdom of God crashes into the heart of rock and roll (or is it the fingers of rock and roll?). Anyway, thanks Pete!
Guitar Hero from Pete Wilson on Vimeo.
Technorati Tags: poison, cc deville, guitar hero, pete wilson, cross point church
ht: my buddy קצירה
found this new toy today: textorizer. This is my face from the picture below created from the text of Isaiah 35 (The Message). check it out!
ht: jonnybaker
Rebecca and I had a great morning of tag team preaching. Truly, it’s a full on large style blessing to preach with my wife. This could be a wonderful thing as we approach an ordained ministry situation. Question: I just woke up from a nap wherein I dreamed a whole story arc dream. I was down for the count. What is it about leading worship that is so exhausting? Anyone else have this issue?
Today, Rebecca and I are working through the Woman at the Well text again to preach tomorrow. I’ve been working on it for two weeks, but try to get a husband and wife in the same room long enough to plan a sermon. It is such a rich text! I have to admit that I haven’t done alot of commentary reading for this one, but one of the more interesting books on the subject, this time through has been Bruce Molina and Richard Rohrbaugh’s Social Science Commentary on the Gospel of John.
An aspect of the text that has really resonated this time is the idea of the bubbling spring of eternal life:
1. Jesus offers living water
2. The woman receives the offer and asks for the water
3. Jesus begins to excavate
You can’t have a well without digging and the bedrock which separates the woman from the water is her relationships. Excavation is probably where most of us stop. Digging hurts. As Peter Gabriel put it, “digging in the dirt, find the places we got hurt.” Uncovering these hurts can leave us exposed and raw. But that’s how Jesus likes it. The translation for “living water” was commonly accepted as meaning “naturally flowing water.” John extends the euphemism to mean eternal life. This gives us a great picture of life in Christ and of course it is immediately played out in the story.
The Sea of Galilee is a living body of water, teeming with life and amenable to shipping. This is more or less due to the fact that water both flows into and out of the Sea. Both an inlet and outlet are necessary for “living the water.” Water from the sea of Galilee then flows down through the Jordan River and into the Dead Sea where there is nowhere for the water to go. With no outlet, the Sea is dead. Water just evaporates while sitting there, making the Sea the second most salty body of water in the world. In the Dead Sea there is no life.
We have a choice, according to the text. Do we receive the “living water” and act as a repository, collecting it and allowing it evaporate over time? Or do we act like the Sea of Galilee and receive the water only to spill into the Jordan River? The Woman at the Well chooses option 2, splashing the water from the everflowing artesian spring in her soul out into her immediate community.
The bubbling spring of eternal life grows throughout Sychar, restoring one woman into the heart of her community and one nation in the heart of the people of God.
While I haven’t yet read Vintage Jesus, I just finished The Shack, by William P. Young. As strange as I feel about it, I have to side with Michael W. Smith. This is a very good story. We live in a time where we need story. We need to be read even as we read. We need to be connected to a larger picture, we seem to be suffering from “meta-starvation.” In this all about us world, suffering doesn’t make any sense. Why would a loving God allow us to shed even one tear? I realize that this seems far fetched, but I hear the question more often than not. We need more than propositions and argument for our hearts, minds and souls.
The Shack is a fantastic opportunity to enter into the story of God and be comforted. Young is a great storyteller and has found a way to share truths about relationship, love and even the Trinity without the trappings of an academic work.
The Shack is about (as if you haven’t heard by this point) a man, Mackenzie, who has shut down internally because of his inability to come to terms with a great and grave tragedy. The grief in his life has separated him from the love of the people around him. His relationship with God has become one of pretend, with God becoming a fictional construct rather than incarnated Savior. In an act of immense grace, Mackenzie receives an invitation to return to the source of his pain, the shack, where he spends a weekend with God as the Trinity. While I have heard the theology criticized as “modalism,” I assure you it is not. God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit character sit together at a table and eat with Mackenzie — an act that is impossible if they are behaving modally. In this story, God is portrayed as a black woman. This has been attacked as Goddess worship. Such theological naiveté must be ignored for the sake of the parable that The Shack so clearly is. Otherwise, we must accuse Jesus of idolatry as well. Anyway, the characterization makes sense in its context and the point of her being what she is is the point, God is not a person. God can reveal God’s self as whomever God wants to. Jesus is delightfully Jesusy and Sarayu (sanskrit for “wind), the Holy Spirit, is erratic and enigmatic.
This is a story told through dialogue. It’s about characters revealing who they are. If there are times where you might be inclined to disagree, then great. That’s what good literature does, it draws you into dialogue with it. It makes you take apart your beliefs and analyze them before putting them back together. Authors (good ones) don’t insist that you agree with them, but hope that you will engage. So engage this. We don’t engage God as Trinity much as a religious or non-religious culture. We have put God in a box, the same one where we keep Santa. His job is keep us “happy” and our shelves fully stocked. This of course falls apart when real life happens. What power does Santa have when we really suffer? We don’t need Santa 24-7, we need God.
The Shack is a tender tale of God’s compassion, sacrifice and concern over us. God enters into our suffering and heals us, pushes us to move forward. That’s the God on display here, the God of Job, the Christ of the Cross, the Resurrected One. If you’re looking for a study on the Trinity, give this a try. I’d love to hear the discussion. The Shack gives the Trinity a very fair treatment. I haven’t heard many preachers put it so well: emergent, neo-fundi or otherwise. We need to reimagine our relationship to God…and his relationships. There’s a bigger story to be told. Young is in his element. I hope that this is not the last we hear from this author.
Technorati Tags: the shack, william p. young, the trinity, theology, books
Last year, I read Chap Clark’s book HURT. The book is the result of an in depth study on the underworld of the American teen. Clark spent time hanging out on the front porch of the the secret life of some High Schoolers, who let him get to know them. The information is confirming and disturbing, but nothing that you don’t notice in the everyday life of youth ministry: Teens are forced (?) to have a real life and then also live the one that we see up here on the surface. Loving them seems to be the only remedy — something Jesusy like that. ABCFamily has produced a weekly show that kind of lets the viewer in on the same principle. I just watched the first episode of The Secret Life of the American Teen here and was equally moved by the honesty, but repelled by the stereotypes.
The main character discovers that she is pregnant after having been seduced by an oversexed upper classman (who was sexually abused by his father) at a school band camp. I’ve always heard about those. There is a Christian couple who suffer from clichè, but get fair treatment…until an apple messes everything up again. The amount of “Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior” language boggles the mind. I actually couldn’t tell if it was a send off to Saved! or for real, but the kids can decide. Here’s the byline from ABC: “Good-girl band geek Amy is smart, talented…and pregnant. Super-Christian cheerleader Grace wants to wait until she’s married. As their secrets start to spread to the parents and to friends like bad-boy Ricky and wild-child Adrian, everyone’s secrets and stories start to come to the surface.”
If you are in youth ministry, you should watch at least this first episode. I can imagine that watching with some of your youth who are capable of having a conversation about it would be pretty enlightening/entertaining. I’m going to use this first episode when we get going in the Fall. The show is real, doesn’t pull the obvious punches, BUT smacks of clichè. But something, in this case, is better than nothing. I’m interested to see how this show does. Will teens want to watch a 7th Heaven version of their lives, or is the show geared more to shock parents into asking questions?
AND just because God is everywhere, catch this:
“The Cleaner” Premieres Tonight at 10PM ET/PT on A&E
Inspired by the true story of a real life “extreme interventionist,” A&E’s new series “The Cleaner” stars Benjamin Bratt as William Banks, a man who, after hitting rock-bottom from his own addictions after the birth of his daughter, strikes a tentative deal with God. In exchange for a second chance, he vows to kick his addictions and dedicate his life to helping others. Now, along with his unconventional team, he helps people get clean from their own addictions by any means necessary. Visit the official site, see the photos and get local listings for “The Cleaner”, premiering tonight at 10PM ET/PT on A&E.
Technorati Tags: secret life of the american teen, youth ministry, abc family, chap clark, the cleaner, A&E
This is a monologue I used yesterday in our worship service. It takes a look at the “woman at the well” story of John 4 from an entirely different perspective. I won’t say too much, but I look forward to your comments. Read the Gospel here. The video is about 14 mins, fyi. –don’t know why the quicktime stopped playing–
The Sixth Man from Chris Harrison on Vimeo.
note: This is a “what could have been” and not a “was.” The perspective is speculative, but credible. All of the situations were a given in the ANE. So, just so you know, I know, that this is hypothetical and not biblical. If for some reason, you can’t view it here, catch it on VIMEO.
This has been added to Creative Chaos @ the Soul.
Technorati Tags: John 4, woman at the well, biblical drama, arts in church
Ed note: I don’t like to criticize others. I don’t. I hate that this has that personal attack vibe. However, when someone with this man’s power uses “bible” in ways that mean “don’t think,” which would appear to mean “don’t learn beneath the surface,” I want to make note of that. The extent to which his comments are un-critical are outrageous, however leave no doubt as to why American Folk Theology is so prevalent in our 21st Century religious landscape.
Here’s what I learnt:
1. Thou shalt be forevermore free from using your imagination.
2. Thou shalt use neither illustration nor demonic metaphor when preaching or telling stories.
3. Thou shalt study neither church history nor church doctrine before preaching on it.
4. However, thou shalt preach it as though thou hast.
5. Thou shalt misinterpret Trinitarian doctrine and make what is eternal temporal.
6. Thou shalt pretend as though thou hast comprehended the full mystery of God.
7. Thou shalt say nothing, but thou shalt sayest it loudly…and with Powerpoint.
8. Thou shalt say “modalism” whence thou meanest “I don’t know.”
9. Thou shalt not care who criticizes, for thine critics do not understand the full mystery of thou.
10. Thou shalt hold fast to the past, even when the present brings thineself closer to God.
Here’s what I’m thinking…when one preaches, one needs to know what one is saying when one says it.
Technorati Tags: mark driscoll, mars hill seattle, the shack, doctrine, theology
Phyllis Tickle did some pulpit supply for um…what’s that guy’s name? Oh, yeah. Rob Bell. She rocked the house. Give this a listen. It is her sermon stolen from the Mars Hill podcast. Her southern accents is as engaging as is her theology. My suggestion — get it! Some of the best exegesis of Melchizedek that I’ve ever heard. While my wife and I have read The Divine Hours for years now, I feel some renewed vigor.
Seriously, listen. Seriously? Seriously. This is some good sabbatical pulpit supply.
my name is chris. i am a husband, father, and fuller seminarian living in mesa, az. i currently serve the church of the master while moving towards presbyterian ordination. sometimes i blog, mostly i write papers. 
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