All posts in Culture
your Christmas doesn’t remind me of your Christ
The holiday season is packed full of lots of stuff. Sometimes, it’s filled with the wrong stuff.
A Monday Sabbath
I’ve been reading through the Old Testament. There are a TON of rules. One of them is about honoring the sabbath. Sure, everyone knows it is in the Ten Commandments, but in other places within the Old Testament, if a person ignores the Sabbath, they’re to be booted out of the community or even put to death (HARSH!)
Since Sunday – for me – is the busiest day of the week, I rest on Mondays.
My goal: accomplish nothing.
Every Monday I’m reminded that I’m not in control. I watch the world go on without me. I experience the reality that I’m not the engine, but I’m merely a passenger.
Today I got an email which I could have easily replied to. It probably would have taken me a 10 seconds. Instead, I merely left it in my inbox.
You see, every happening in life doesn’t require MY attention. Everything isn’t an urgency, so we ought not act like it.
Genesis 2:2 shows us that God rested. God took a step back. God took a deep breath. God paused.
Who are we to refuse the same pausing? Are we trying to prove we’re God? Are we trying to act like we control everything?
Who are we acting for? Ourselves? Others?
Knock it off. Rest. Breathe. Reflect. Accomplish nothing. The world will be OK (actually, it’ll probably be better).
we need reminded of this
Love God with all your heart, mind, soul, strength, time, money, food, muscles, brains, resources, education and social networks.
Love your neighbor – both those like and extremely unlike yourself – as yourself.
God is real. God’s existence isn’t Dependant on your faithfulness. Your faithfulness is a blessing to you and to others.
God is at work. This world was God’s project before it was yours. God doesn’t NEED you, God invites us as a partner in re-creation of the Earth.
what else do we need reminded of?
How I can tell we don’t really want to reach middle eastern peoples.
If your church is in the country and your congregation is a bunch of john deere driving farmers, your worship music will sound a certain way.
If your church is located in a college town in the pacific-northwest and your congregation is full 20-year-olds in skinny jeans, your worship music will sound a certain way.
If your church is full of blacks, your music will sound a certain way.
If your church is in the suburbs and is full of whites, it will sound a certain way.
If your church wants to reach a demographic, your music will show it.
This is how I can tell that MOST churches have no interest in making middle eastern peoples feel comfortable in their churches: our music sounds nothing like the music below and I’d bet our musicians/congregations/leaders have no interest in it sounding like this.
I love u2, but really….
If I hear one more church leader talk about how U2 is all about “worship” or how they lead “worship,” I’m going to shave my head and get a tattoo (both are things I may do anyways…)
Don’t get me wrong, I love U2′s music. I love to listen to Bono talk about grace and greed. But I think we’re getting it backwards.
U2 isn’t showing us how our worship could be, they’re showing us (along with every other concert on the planet) how screwed up our idea of worship is. You see, if you place the right set of instruments and lyrics, add an amazing stage, add a captivating persona, and mix that in with a shared experience with thousands of people, you’ll get goosebumps, and exhilirating night and a memory where you felt really close with total strangers.
Worship ISNT music. Worship ISNT getting goosebumps on your arms. Worship ISNT singing.
The Greek word for worship translated literally means “to lay prostrate before.” In the Bible when it tells of people worshiping, they were literally falling on their face.
It is SO easy to sing. It is SO easy to clap along with the song (if you’re white, it may not be SO easy, but you get the picture…)
It is hard to lay everything down. It is hard to be in such reverence and awe and submission that everything about you (your money, your time, your dreams, your thoughts) demonstrate that you aren’t the center of the universe.
***ps. if you missed U2′s live concert from the Rose Bowl, the ENTIRE video is on youtube in high definition. Pretty cool.
A poll about accountability.
[poll id="2"]
online awesome vs offline awesome
I had a friend compliment me about how much I read, blog, tweet and whatnot.
He’s a sucker.
You see, it is all pretty simple and – if I’m doing it right – my system of learning and exposing myself to ideas feels really natural and easy. That is where virtual community becomes a bit faker than real community. All I have to do to appear wise and bright and thoughtful and intelligent is write a couple of paragraphs every day? Find and retweet interesting links? Reword old ideas in new ways? Reference popular books, authors, or thinkers?
Yup, that’s about it.
Online, it is easy to consistently be awesome. In fact, it’s so easy that people who aren’t awesome blow our minds. We’r SO surprised to find a company or church with a lame website. When someone doesn’t understand what blogging or twitter is, we’re at a loss for words. It’s like they’re from a different planet.
Online Awesomeness is low-hanging fruit. It’s the fad diet of achievements. Anyone can do it.
What is a lot harder is to be awesome offline; to continually interact with real people and leave them impressed. It’s hard to learn a difficult skill when you don’t have the time or energy. It’s hard to be kind to jerks. It’s hard to give a rip about people on the other side of the world who will never pay you back for what you do. Those things take years and years and years to master and LOTS of people, companies, churches and societies fail at those. In fact, so many fail to be awesome offline that those who are remarkable (MLK, Mother Teresa, Jesus, Ghandi, Nelson Mandela, etc.) blow our minds for years and years to come.
So here’s a challenge, if you like blogging and tweeting and facebooking. Great.
If you aren’t into it. Great.
Be awesome offline. Be remarkable in reality, not virtual reality.
Cradle to Cradle: Church Edition
Yesterday I told you about a little known book that could change everything.
The premise: what if our physical wastes weren’t negatives, what if they were positive?
In my odd way of thinking, the entire book made me think about faith communities.
Lots and lots of people have had experience with a church or with christians or something like that. There are just parts of church life that are weird and awkward and draining. Too often, I think those in churches soldier on through the negatives in pursuit of a “goal.” In reality, I think Cradle to Cradle teaches us that there needed be any negatives or things we “just do.”
First example: volunteers. How often do we church workers – no matter how hard we try – simply see volunteers as the vehicle for our ministry rather than our co-workers in ministry? How often do i neglect my adult volunteers in order to connect with teenagers? How often do the adult volunteers feel like they are there to help me put on my show.
Another example: coffee. Instead of just getting the cheapest or standard coffee to sell/give out at your church on Sunday mornings, why not support the world and buy some coffee here.
Another glaring example: buildings. Instead of draining the congregation of 3 million dollars for a building – or a bridge – why not share a space. You could share with a club, a bar (bars are RARELY open on Sunday morning), a coffee shop, a small business, or another church (read here how Holy Trinity and RockHarbor are sharing space).
Cradle to Cradle
One of the best books I’ve ever read is “Cradle to Cradle” by William McDonough and Michael Braungart. In this book, they ask the reader to rethink what sustainable life might look like. The hippies of the world would have us believe it means not bathing and making our own clothes out of tree leaves, but William and Michael think otherwise.
What if, instead of polluting the world, the things we designed were actually nutrients (both biologically and sociologically).
Think about it, if we designed products that way, we wouldn’t have to halt production in an effort to save the planet. No, instead, our production would enhance the planet (much like a bee’s production enhances the flowers it uses).
Should be mandatory reading for all designers and politicians.
PS. tomorrow I’ll write about what this COULD mean for the church world…..
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