Categotry Archives: Rantings

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Democracy and Citizenship

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Categories: food for thought, Meanderings (look it up), politics? oh puh-leeze., Rantings

This post has been on the burner for several months, and I haven’t really made mention of anything political since the last presidential election (mainly because that’s not what this blog is about). But in just watching the unfolding of current events (including the health care debate), and continuing to ponder what the church’s role should be in such things…I think it’s time to write.

This is a preview of Democracy and Citizenship. Read the full post (1511 words, 1 image, estimated 6:03 mins reading time)

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Removing the Restrictions

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Categories: food for thought, Rantings

In my process of deconstructing, not just from institutional church but from institutional thinking… 🙂

…I’ve been realizing that there is a common thread or theme running through it. It could be worded several ways, but all convey the same basic question:

  • What does true Christ-following look like without all the extra trappings we have attached to it?
  • How can we be more life-giving in the practice of our faith?
  • What does a true Christian look like?
  • How do we get back to the basics of living the example of Jesus, and shed all the unnecessary stuff loaded onto us by the Christian subculture?
This is a preview of Removing the Restrictions. Read the full post (734 words, 1 image, estimated 2:56 mins reading time)

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How One Statement Can Explain Two Years

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Categories: changing mindsets, food for thought, Rantings

Kathy over at Carnival in My Head just got back from Africa with her family, and posted a preliminary report about her trip on her blog. One of the most profound moments she described was when she said her missions team was the first American team ever to actually stay at the orphanage they were visiting–that most teams sleep at a nice hotel an hour away. One of the teachers at the orphanage expressed gratefulness at this, saying, “people come to help, but they don’t really want to be with us and live our life with us.”

Ouch. In so many ways.

This is a preview of How One Statement Can Explain Two Years. Read the full post (1225 words, 1 image, estimated 4:54 mins reading time)

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The Inoculation of Religion

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Categories: Meanderings (look it up), Rantings

Recent discussions on this here blog have got my mind turning…as if it didn’t have enough to do. 🙂 Not really so much agreeing or disagreeing with comments made, or anything like that…just thinking.

Specifically, I’ve been thinking about what would make us not know when it’s real.

For a long time I’ve thought of religion as working the same way that a vaccine does, only instead of making us healthier, it has the opposite effect.

This is a preview of The Inoculation of Religion. Read the full post (875 words, 1 image, estimated 3:30 mins reading time)

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Self-Interest, Kingdom of God, and The Great Dilemma

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Categories: Meanderings (look it up), Rantings

So I’ve been pondering lately about the dilemma I faced while still operating as part of the institutional systems of church, the dilemma that so many well-meaning church leaders face today.

The dilemma is this: we like to see ourselves, and our local church, as part of the larger Body of Christ, recognizing that we are only a part of THE church. And yet, because of the nature of sustaining an institution, most of the decisions the leader(s) must make have to do with the growing of “our” church rather than building “the” church.

This is a preview of Self-Interest, Kingdom of God, and The Great Dilemma. Read the full post (961 words, 1 image, estimated 3:51 mins reading time)

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Zombie Christians

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Categories: food for thought, Rantings

I suppose this post would have been more timely last weekend…. 🙂

Have you ever noticed, those of you with a church background (particularly of the more charismatic type), that there is often a vibe in church that our minds are an obstacle to receiving from God? Most of the time it’s subtle; other times, not so subtle. But the underlying premise is that we receive from God by the Spirit in ways that our natural minds cannot understand, and that if we try to discern with our minds, it will become a stumbling block to us. You can pick up this vibe in the way things are worded–when we are encouraged in some way to “bypass our minds” when God is manifesting His presence in some way, or when we are trying to get hold of some revelation, or when we are praying in tongues (again, for you charismatic folk).

This is a preview of Zombie Christians. Read the full post (693 words, 2 images, estimated 2:46 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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We Have Done Made It to Denver-ly (A Short Story in Three Chapters, or Maybe Four)

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Categories: My Story, Rantings, what I did today

Cyberspace is once again available to me, and I’m enjoying my first morning as a Denver resident at a nearby coffee shop before hitting my looong list of things to do to get settled. But here, for your amazement amusement, is the story of our trip.

CHAPTER 1: The Turbulent Take-off

This is a preview of We Have Done Made It to Denver-ly (A Short Story in Three Chapters, or Maybe Four). Read the full post (1131 words, 1 image, estimated 4:31 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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