Christian

What does it mean to be a Christian?  If someone were to walk up to you today, and ask you, “What is a Christian?”,  what would your answer be?

Let me know.

Music I Listen To

Amorphis (Tuonela) - This is the Finnish metal band’s finest album.  It all flows seamlessy from the first song to the last, and is an amazing conceptual album.  Tuonela is, if I remember rightly, a Finnish underworld.  Plus it has the band’s best vocalist, who has since moved on to other projects.

Basil Poledouris (Conan the Barbarian) - This is the soundtrack to the infamous Arnold movie.  Majestic brass orchestrations,  very Wagner-esque.  I love it. 

Coldplay (Viva La Vida) - Great album.  It’s a slow-grow, takes some listening to get used to, but once it gets its hooks in ya, it’s great.   I listen to it all the time.

David Gray (Greatest Hits) - Great compilation from one of our best songwriters.  Amazing tunes, wonderfully produced.  The two new songs, “You’re the World To Me” and “Destroyer” are great, and a new version of “Babylon” is done nicely as well.

Eddie Vedder (Into the Wild) - My two favorite songs on this album, “Hard Sun” and “Society,” are the two that he didn’t write.  Go figure.  But the whole album has a very unique tone to it.  Definitely worth listening to.

The Everybodyfields (Nothing is Okay) - Amazing album.  I love these folks.

Pearl Jam (Avocado Self-Title) - Their newest work is their best since “Yield.”  I love this album. 

Radiohead (Kid A) - My favorite Radiohead album, and their best work to date.

Movies I’ve Seen #2

Across the Universe - This movie was NOT what I expected. I’m not sure what it IS I expected, but it was not this. What I got, however, turned out to be more than I expected. At first, I was put off, but I slowly warmed up to it. I think this is an extremely visually entrancing film. Loved it.

No Country For Old Men - LOVED it! After months and months of hearing folks say that it was a terrible movie, and that it did nothing but glorify violence, I decided to watch it. And I thought it was an AMAZING flick. The acting was great, the story was awesome. I just thought it was good all around. I was engaged the whole time.

Memento - Rented this. I saw it right when it came out and hated it, but I decided to give it another go, and I loved it as well. It’s done by the same director that does the Batman movies. So far Christopher Nolan is turning out to be an amazing filmmaker.

This About Sums It Up

I’m reading “A Purple State of Mind,” by Craig Detweiler. In the first chapter, he quotes Fight Club, and it really struck a chord with me. It perfectly defines what we’re going through today. It defines the zeitgeist, the moral sense of life, that we as Christians have to face head-on and address.

Here’s the quote:

“Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don’t need. We’re the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War’s a spiritual war… Our Great Depression is our lives. We’ve all been raised on television to believe that one day we’d all be millionaires and movie gods and rock stars. But we won’t. And we’re slowly learning that fact. And we’re very, very pissed off.”

Welcome to the world, folks.

What does the gospel have to offer in the face of this? Church on Sunday, then a nice dinner, then back off to work for another week? What sort of radical life is Christ calling us to? What alternative does he hold in his hands?

The world is dying, literally dying, to hear the gospel.

We just need to make sure we’re getting the message across.

And, truthfully, I’m still kind of in the process of finding out what that message is.

What is it, people? What can we, as Christ followers, offer a dying world, enslaved to consumerism and self-worship?

What can we do?

Movies I’ve Seen #1

Some movies I’ve seen recently:

The Dark Knight - It’s not just fluff - Heath Ledger really IS an amazing Joker. The movie was epic, which means it was long.  Batman sort of felt like an afterthought in the flick, but I’m okay with that - I couldn’t handle his deep voice whenever he was suited up.  I understood the logic behind it, but it still made me laugh.  But the Joker… that was just creepy.  Creepy enough to make me want to see it again.

The Ruins - Rented this.  It’s really bad.  Don’t watch it.  But it IS a prime example of the depravity of the human spirit that chooses to rear its ugly head every now and then.  The “sense of life,” to borrow from Ayn Rand, of this film is nothing but death and chaos.  No redemptive value at all.

The Music Within - Amazing movie about a deaf guy who works to help disabled people get jobs.  Loved it.

The Last Legion - I love Arthurian lore.  I did not love this movie.  In fact, I didn’t even finish it.  Come on, Colin Firth.  What were you thinking?

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford - LOVED this movie. The cinematography was great.  It’s long, but it’s worth it.

There Will Be Blood - Loved this as well.  Just a good film.

What have you seen lately?

The National “Worship Leader” Conference

I was in Texas for a week.

The first night I was a bit disoriented, I think from the long flight and having to go straight to the conference without any downtime.  Matt Redman played that night, and Skip Heitzig spoke.  I think that’s how you spell it.  But I was not vibing with the conference that night, and thought to myself that if this was how it was going to go, it was going to be a bad week. 

Luckily, things sweetened up.

The next morning I heard Leonard Sweet give a talk on metaphor in the church.  I had never heard of him.  They had his books there, and I bought “The Gospel According to Starbucks.”  I also went to his seminar “Summoned to Lead.” It was a great privilege to meet him. 

Then I went to the “Pastor as Storyteller” seminar, taught by Bishop Joseph Garlington, which was also a complete blessing, as well as “Into The Dark,” a seminar by Craig Detweiler.  

Needless to say, I came home with a lot of books.

Two things going on today that were featured at this conference are the Odes of Solomon and The Voice.

The Odes are early Christian hymns put to music, and I think they’re beautiful, and the Voice is a new “translation” of the scriptures, which I’m really excited about.  I got to meet Greg Garrett, the reteller of the gospel of Mark.  I think The Voice is going to be a great contribution to the church.

My time in Texas really did a lot to dig out some entrenched, judgmental attitudes and gave me the opportunity to meet really amazing followers of Jesus.

Things of note to sum up:

Riverbend Church: location of the conference, was quite an architectural feat.
Odes of Solomon: excellent tunes you need to check out.
Leonard Sweet: Cool dude, has things to say that the church needs to hear.
Craig Detweiler: Look into his film and books to see how the church can relate to the culture.
Joseph Garlington: Great speaker and teacher.
The Voice: New retelling of the Scriptures that you should definitely look into.
Lincoln Brewster, Tommy Walker:  Two cool musicians.

Dig it.

We Hate To See You Smile

The AFA, a “family-oriented” association, is choosing to boycott McDonald’s for donating money to a Gay and Lesbian organization.   The AFA is boycotting Mickey-D’s because they feel that McDonald’s should not take one side or the other in this “culture war.”

What I find absurd is that the AFA wishes some people to objectively rise above their squabble, while they themselves want to stay in the trenches.  If this “culture war” is about one side being right, and the other wrong, then shouldn’t everyone take sides, even fast food restaurants?

I guarantee you one thing, though: If McDonald’s had donated money to the AFA, the AFA would be applauding McD’s for choosing the right side and endorsing the God-sanctioned institution of marriage.

Once again, it’s not about the cause, it’s about the money, the politics, and the power.  I don’t think the AFA or anybody else concerned wants this “culture war” to end.  They’re all getting a lot of press that they otherwise wouldn’t get. 

But again, I guarantee you that if McD’s offered the money to the AFA, they wouldn’t have turned it down.  So their real objection should just be that the money wasn’t offered to them. 

A lot like the jaded kid in elementary school who didn’t get a tootsie roll like the kid beside him.

Stop your bitchin’, AFA.  Grow up. 

And buy a double-cheeseburger.

You know you want it.

Mmmm…

Saved!

I just re-watched the movie “Saved!”  When I first saw it, I was surprised at how much I liked it.  I thought it would be pretty lame, but it turned out quite differently. 

This movie has a lot to say about pop-Christianity and church culture.

And there’s a very deep insight towards the end, where the main character asks the question “What would Jesus do?”  and gives her own very honest and valid answer: “I don’t know.  But in the meantime, we’ll be trying to figure that out.  Together.”

Another time, the same girl says, “So everything that doesn’t fit into some stupid idea of what you think God wants you just try to hide or fix or get rid of? It’s just all too much to live up to. No one fits in one hundred percent of the time. Not even you.”

I think the church needs reminded of this point a lot. 

We think we all have it figured out.  We have this list of what to believe, and what to condemn, and life moves along just fine.

But it’s not that simple.

Is everything a shade of grey?

What do you think?

CvC Season 3

Are you ready? 

Season 3 of Culture vs. Christian is getting ready to hit the streets.  We’re single-handedly taking on the emergent church and declaring ourselves post-emergent, we’re thinking about bringing back the prophet beards, we’re less bitter, yet filling…..

It’s all happening!

Action Jackson

Did you hear what Jesse Jackson said when he thought his mic was off?  Ohhh, the things we say when we think our mic is off. 

But it shows you one thing:  For people like Jackson, Sharpton, and all those other political clowns (white, black, yellow, or red), it’s not about equality, hope, justice, or any other quaint word we can all believe in.

It’s about politics and power.  Special and personal interests. 

When Imus made a remark about black basketball players, he loses his show on MSNBC and is publicly chastised.  When Jesse Jackson makes off the cuff remarks, thinking his mic is off, he expects everyone to be okay with it. 

I am not okay with it.

He’s one of many individuals who spend their careers criticizing and judging other people when they make a verbal slip, but doesn’t want the heat when he himself makes one. 

Do you see how political this is?  We see what he really thinks of Obama when his mic is off.  But he’s asking us to ignore the candid remarks and listen to what he says when the makeup is on, the lights are ready, and the camera is rolling. 

It’s all politics, my friends. 

Not a person on the top really believes in what they’re doing.  They believe in more money, and more power.

They’re all as corrupt as you or me.

Ain’t one of ‘em got an ounce of hope, or change, that we could ever believe in.