The Hull Truth… and nothing but

Wow!  I have rarely laughed so hard, been so jaw-dropped suprised and so silent-head-shakingly stunned as when I read this list of the top 10 worse Jesus films from the mighty Wittenburg Door Mag that lives on in cyber world.   

I don’t know how I’ve missed some of these, but I’m glad that I did. 

Among those who are in church planting and church health circles, there has been much buzz about understanding and utilizing social networking.  With the boom in Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and other platforms of connection, people are wondering not if, but how these social networking theories can be applied to other avenues, such as church.

To go along with this new understanding of how culture is changing and connecting, there is another growing issue in established organization and businesses: decentralized authority.  While we may not like to acknowledge it, this issue is not only changing the way that businesses communicate and deal with structure and system, but is also changing the face of politics and church as well.

For most of us while we may not articulate this all in the same way, we do know that this is happening and is a part of our culture.  In fact many of us are already an active part of this cultural change in way or another.

For those of us most interested in church, we see these two formational forces come together in the house church movement.  There is a fascinating article that talks about this here.  I highly recommend the read as it does a fine job of describing the phenomenon.  Andrew Jones also picked up on this article here.

I have a friend named James.  I’ve known him for over 10 years.  We first met when I was living in KC, going to seminary and we were both attending KC 1st Nazarene.  Now we run into each other nearly every Sunday at Jacob’s Well.

James asked me to post a link on my site to a camp that he is attending this summer, Camp Barnabas.  Their site says, “Camp Barnabas exists to provide awesome, life-changing opportunities to people who have been robbed of them by disability or disease. Each summer we offer acceptance and love to more than 1,300 campers with special needs, empowering them to live lives of ability.”

A quick James story:  I was walking down the hall at JW and saw James approaching me going the opposite direction.  We greeted one another and then as we approached each other in passing James reached out his hand to touch my forehead.  Now, for those who really know me, you’ll know that I have a larger than average personal space bubble and that I can’t stand it when people touch my head, especially unexpectedly.  My reaction to James move towards my head was an immediate “head-jerk” reaction away from him.  James stopped and said, “wait, I just wanted to do this” and put his finger on my forehead signing the cross.  He then put his hand on my shoulder and said a short silent prayer for me.  He quickly moved on his way.

Me, I was grabbed by the show of love and care from James and by my own initial reaction to James’ reaching out to me.  I also sensed in that moment that somehow Jesus himself had just touched me, stopped me, prayed for me, shared presence with me.

Thanks James for being you and I hope you have a great time a camp this year!

Was near Chicago this weekend at Olivet Nazarene University, my alma mater, for an NYI regional event (Celebrate Life).  I flew into O’Hare, picked up some others who were flying in to be at the event, went to lunch at Giordanno’s.  So far so good. 

Drove the hour and a half to campus then realized that I had brilliantly left my cell phone at the restaurant.  OK… so I only use it all the time and was only expecting about 4 phone calls and had 3 people expecting phone calls from me.  And did I mention I manage my 50+ emails a day on it?  Oh, and that it’s not mine, but rather the company’s?  So I track down the number of Giordanno’s and call them.  They had the phone in their office. 

THANK YOU GIORDANNO’s!!  Not just for great pizza, but also for not selling my phone or keeping it as your own. 

I turned around and drove the hour and a half back up there, retrieved my phone, ate dinner there (silver lining!), then drove the hour and a half back.  I am so dumb.

Special thanks to Jeremy Bixler who was willing to be a true friend and ride with me and only mock me occassionally.  Also because he introduced me to the “Mighty Shake”.  Well done, Jeremy, well done.

My wife and I were having a conversation one day with one of her friends from work about spirituality and religion.  Carol’s friend described another acquaintance as “one of those born-againers”.  Carol mentioned to her friend that we were some of the “born-againers” too.  Her friend quickly responded, “No you’re not!  You don’t tell people how sinful they are all the time.”  It is with that interesting perspective on Christians that I begin this post. 

What is it about Christianity that makes people so put off, so sure that we are just ready to judge them and separate ourselves from everyone else?  While I have seen some instances of this strong judgmentalism, I often do NOT see it, but see the opposite, Christians loving and caring for their friends and the world, wanting the best for them. 

A few weeks ago (April 4th broadcast) on one of my favorite podcasts, “This American Life” they told the story entitled, “Brother Born Again.”  This was an audio highlight of the film by the same name.  In it the sister, who is the documentor, talks about her relationship (and her family’s relationship) with her older brother who had become a Christian.  She tells the story about his spiritual experience and his subsequent moving to a commune farm on an island in Alaska.  She approaches the story and her brother assuming that he would be the one to judge her and that he is the one that has created separation between her and the family.  Interestingly, as the story unfolds and the documentor sister progress in their questions and quest to find out more about her brother she realizes that it has not been him who has been creating the distance or making judgmental assumptions, but the other way around. 

Most fascintating in this very well done piece is the struggle you hear as the brother and sister process their faith and relationship.  It is fantastic!

I found myself cheering for the brother, hoping that he would not be a complete judgmental and overbearing idiot.  He is revealed to be quite thoughtful and faithful, while struggling through some fundamentalism doctrine.  I also found myself cheering for the sister and her quest to right relationship with her brother.  There is something in her tension that leads me to believe that more is going under the surface. 

Anyway, if you are a fan of good story, you should check out the podcast.