Categotry Archives: food for thought

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Here’s Some Irony to Make Your Brain Hurt

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Categories: food for thought, What the heck was THAT?

It’s been awhile since I’ve made your brains hurt–at least a couple of days or so–so here’s Nugget #591 from the Official Collection of Proverbs and Random Thoughts from Jeff the Twisted, Slightly Off-Center Philosopher:

“We Christians tend to evaluate whether someone else is a Christian–whether someone is “in” or “out”–using a completely different set of criteria than what the Bible teaches, or what Jesus Himself modeled for us.”

Care to unpack this one for me? What does it mean? Is it true, or not? And why?

Pass the aspirin.

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Permanent link to this post (92 words, 2 images, estimated 22 secs reading time)

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Unneccesary Weights

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

This post sort of ties in with the Church as Business Series I did recently, although I’m not going to talk so much about the business aspects of church, but more about the intangible more intangible personal effects it has on people.

I’ve now had ample time and experience on both sides of the institutional paradigm. I remember how passionate I used to be about majoring on the minors, and the pressure I felt to “succeed”–whatever that is. And in trying to come up with some sort of analogy to describe the difference between the two–nowadays, I feel….lighter.

This is a preview of Unneccesary Weights. Read the full post (827 words, 2 images, estimated 3:18 mins reading time)

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The Snare of Self-Importance

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Categories: church, food for thought

I might have quoted this line before…but in the movie Pearl Harbor, when Ben Affleck’s character (a fighter pilot) volunteers to participate in the Royal Air Force as they battle the German fighter planes, one of the commanding officers essentially asks why an American would do so. “You anxious to die?” he asks.

“Not anxious to die,” the American pilot replies, “just anxious to matter.”

This is a preview of The Snare of Self-Importance. Read the full post (1273 words, 2 images, estimated 5:06 mins reading time)

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It’s Different Here

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Categories: church, food for thought, religion

We’re still finding our bearings around our new digs–not just within walking distance, but also in the area.

Comparing Denver to the Bible Belt…it’s different here.

I might submit that last sentence to a “best understatement” contest, if I can find one. 🙂

This is a preview of It’s Different Here. Read the full post (859 words, 1 image, estimated 3:26 mins reading time)

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Church as Business (part 3–The Alternative)

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Categories: church, food for thought, Rantings

Part 1, Part 2…

“So…if we’re not meant to be a business, what are we meant to be?”

How about a community?

How about a family?

How about a living organism?

You see, with all this businesslike structure we’ve shoved the church into, we have forgotten that the church is not a business–it never was. The church is people. When we make it about the other, we are trying to be something we are not. And the suit doesn’t fit.

This is a preview of Church as Business (part 3–The Alternative). Read the full post (876 words, 1 image, estimated 3:30 mins reading time)

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Church as Business (part 2–The Bottom Line)

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Categories: church, food for thought

Let’s pick up the thread from part 1 by repeating something I wrote at the end of it…

This leads us to the most painful truth about church being structured as business…Because what is the bottom line in any business?

Money.

The bottom line is that when church is structured as a business, money naturally becomes the primary factor in the decisions that are made. And that can often create a huge conflict of interest between the interests of the organization, the best interests of the people, and the interests of the kingdom of God in general.

This is a preview of Church as Business (part 2–The Bottom Line). Read the full post (1101 words, 1 image, estimated 4:24 mins reading time)

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Church as Business (part 1–A Rose By Any Other Name)

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Categories: church, food for thought

Looking back at the deconstruction I’ve gone through over the past 10 years or so, I smile just a little at how progressive I used to think I was early on. 🙂

If you’ve known anything of my story, you know that we began the church in Tulsa after the institutional pattern, which was all we knew–and it morphed into a house church. That entire process was such a learning experience, and it showed me so many inconsistencies as we continually struggled with the tension between what we wanted the church to be, and what we had to do to keep it afloat.

This is a preview of Church as Business (part 1–A Rose By Any Other Name). Read the full post (653 words, 2 images, estimated 2:37 mins reading time)

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Story

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

Last week, I was in a phone conversation with some friends in Denver, and I was sharing some of our desires for enabling and nurturing creative community…and in comparing notes, one of my friends began sharing of his long-standing interest in the power of storytelling, and how he wanted to see that form of creativity encouraged, especially in young people–to see Christ’s love revealed in our ability to write and create stories.

Jesus used the art of story quite a bit to convey the truths He wanted people to learn. We call them “parables.” But lots of stories aren’t fiction. In fact, the Bible is filled with story–the drama, comedy, tragedy and triumph in the lives of real people. And through these narratives, God reveals Himself.

This is a preview of Story. Read the full post (1371 words, 2 images, estimated 5:29 mins reading time)

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Am I Becoming Agnostic?

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

I’ve been so overwhelmed with details lately that I just feel like letting my brain take a little walk this morning. So come on along… 🙂

Aside from pastor friends and others who question whether I’ve lost my salvation…there is (or was, at first) a little bit of personal concern I had in my journey away from the beaten paths of institutional Christianity.

This is a preview of Am I Becoming Agnostic?. Read the full post (812 words, 1 image, estimated 3:15 mins reading time)

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Note to Church: You Don’t Have to Put EVERYTHING on Video

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Categories: food for thought, media, Rantings

Cartoon Copyright Gospel Communications International, Inc – www.reverendfun.com

(In an indirect way, this ties in with my recent post The Rape of the Media…)

By now, former Alaska governor Sarah Palin’s Christianity (and Pentecostal) roots are well known. We know this primarily because of YouTube. Someone shot video of some prayer times and something Sarah Palin said in church about the war, and thanks to YouTube, that stuff can now go all over the web. When Palin became the VP candidate, and it came time for the press to do its dirty work, they didn’t even have to dig for it–the video pretty much came to them.

This is a preview of Note to Church: You Don’t Have to Put EVERYTHING on Video. Read the full post (923 words, 2 images, estimated 3:42 mins reading time)
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