Categotry Archives: church

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The Show Must Go On?

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Categories: changing mindsets, church, food for thought, movies

I’m thinking of old movie, one of those formulaic wartime entertainment feel-good musicals, called Diamond Horseshoe. The plot isn’t too memorable, but there’s an interesting standing joke throughout the movie. The Diamond Horseshoe is one of those old-timey nightclubs with the stage show. Early in the movie, the manager repeats the well-known mantra, “The show must go on!” To which one of the main characters asks, simply, “Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why must the show go on?”

This question gets repeated several times through the movie, and it frustrates everyone because, of course, nobody really knows why the show must go on. It just has to. The show must go on, because it must. Because…it just has to.

This is a preview of The Show Must Go On?. Read the full post (917 words, 2 images, estimated 3:40 mins reading time)

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Outside the Box: Not Just About Being Weird

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Categories: changing mindsets, church, food for thought

Here’s a question for any gamers out there. Have you ever been playing some sort of puzzle game and found yourself apparently stuck? Like, you’re in a room with no apparent way out, or you have a door you must open but you cannot figure out how?

I have a sure-fire way of getting out of those predicaments: go to a hints website and find a cheat. 🙂 No, seriously. I have no patience with stuff like that. Actually, what intrigues me about finding a hint is how simple the solution usually is–if only you approach the problem from a slightly different angle. When I get the hint, I usually have a V-8 moment. (*Smack* “Why didn’t I see that before??”)

This is a preview of Outside the Box: Not Just About Being Weird. Read the full post (938 words, 2 images, estimated 3:45 mins reading time)

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The Subculture of Christianity

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Categories: church, food for thought, Meanderings (look it up)

So I’ve been pondering how my thinking has changed over the past few years, and how I can’t stomach so much of the Christian-ese lingo and churchy behavior anymore–which is funny because I used to be all about that stuff not too very long ago. I don’t go near Christian television anymore, I don’t listen to Christian radio hardly at all, and I usually can’t stand to listen to sermons anymore. And I feel very out of place in most church meetings.

And I know why I’m like this now. And it’s not that I’ve abandoned my faith.

This is a preview of The Subculture of Christianity. Read the full post (555 words, 1 image, estimated 2:13 mins reading time)

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Defending the Christian Label (or Traveling Light)

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Categories: church, food for thought, Rantings

Yesterday we went to a local retail hobby store, and there was a “now hiring” stand with lots of employment applications folded like brochures stuck in it. Out of curiosity, The Wild One picked one up.

The amount of red tape required just to get employed at this store was daunting. Drug/alcohol testing, background checks, aptitude tests (none of which I am opposed to, BTW)…but then there were literally two pages of fine print about an “arbitration agreement”, where anyone who wanted to be employed there must sign a binding agreement to resolves disputes through arbitration (read: you can’t sue us). NO ONE gets employed unless they sign the agreement. I know; it says so about four different times on the application.

This is a preview of Defending the Christian Label (or Traveling Light). Read the full post (1061 words, 2 images, estimated 4:15 mins reading time)

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Coming Soon: Traveling to Encourage the Brethren

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Categories: church, travel

I haven’t done much ministry-related travel in the past few years. I used to devote at least one weekend a month to visiting churches and ministering–sometimes alone, sometimes with the family. However, during the intense season of de-construction, it just didn’t seem like the right time for travel. There was so much changing so quickly in my heart and mind, and so many stories still being written, that if I had shared something one week with a church, by the next week I might have felt completely different about it.

However, in talking to different ones among our mentors, and in trying to discern the heart of God for this season…there is a consensus that it is a good time for us to do some traveling.

This is a preview of Coming Soon: Traveling to Encourage the Brethren. Read the full post (475 words, 2 images, estimated 1:54 mins reading time)

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Retooling our Gifts for a New Season

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Categories: changing mindsets, church, food for thought, music

My mind has been drifting back to some previous posts (see here and here) where we were discussing individuals who function in various ministry positions (like pastors and worship leaders), who find themselves displaced when they no longer feel they belong within institutional Christianity. Their gifts don’t go away, but they no longer know what to do with them. My blogger friend Glenn has talked about it; I can certainly relate; and I know there are others.

This is a preview of Retooling our Gifts for a New Season. Read the full post (1186 words, 1 image, estimated 4:45 mins reading time)

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Following Up on "Pagan Christianity"

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Categories: books, changing mindsets, church

As of the time of this writing, there haven’t been an abundance of comments to my recent review on Pagan Christianity? by Frank Viola and George Barna. (I recognize I’m a bit behind many other bloggers in my review, and many have already moved on from this conversation.) However, of the four comments I’ve had so far, three have sided in favor of the book. Their thoughtful remarks, and reading some of the follow-up content on Frank Viola’s website, have prompted me to follow up a bit as to why I reviewed the book the way I did, and where I was coming from.

This is a preview of Following Up on "Pagan Christianity". Read the full post (1202 words, 1 image, estimated 4:48 mins reading time)

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A Long-Awaited Review of "Pagan Christianity"

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Categories: books, church, Rantings

Okay, so it’s so long awaited that probably most of my current readers do not even know that I was planning to review this book at all. 🙂

A few months ago I posted this entry, alluding to a book that was ticking me off. I withheld the name but promised I’d give it a full review when I was done with it. But I guess I was not so subtle about it, because my commentors immediately guessed it was Pagan Christianity? by Frank Viola and George Barna. Yesterday, when I read this post on bob.blog, it reminded me that I hadn’t actually given the book its fair due. This book has generated so much talk that now there are folks even poking fun at it. I submit the following video as evidence of this.

This is a preview of A Long-Awaited Review of "Pagan Christianity". Read the full post (823 words, 2 images, estimated 3:18 mins reading time)

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Fluid Church

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Categories: changing mindsets, church, food for thought

When I think about how God has been re-shaping my perspectives on the church in general, one analogy I like to use is based on science–particularly, the properties of water, and/or the properties of solids and liquids.

We most often think of water as a liquid, because that’s where we identify with it, mostly. A liquid, a fluid, easily takes the shape of anything that contains it, and can be poured from container to container. It gives way when you dip your finger in it. It is movable, flexible, easily changed. And yet, liquid water molecules tend to stick together. Droplets of water on glass tend to find each other and merge together. It is a loose structure, but there is a natural cohesion of the molecules.

This is a preview of Fluid Church. Read the full post (878 words, 2 images, estimated 3:31 mins reading time)

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Community Where We Find It

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Categories: changing mindsets, church

So I’m continuing to ponder–to re-imagine–what church community could look like if the church itself wasn’t defined by its regular meeting. (Read this previous post to get the background.)

My blogger friend Ben left a heartfelt comment on that post about how difficult it is these days to build community. It seems like there is so much in our culture that works against it; not only do we tend to be more private and secluded as individuals, but we also are so busy with things like work, school, soccer practice and so on, that we no longer have time to invest in church community.

This is a preview of Community Where We Find It. Read the full post (693 words, 2 images, estimated 2:46 mins reading time)
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