The Story We Find Ourselves In
The haiku contest has left many with conflicted feelings. "When will it be over," some ask. "When, oh when, Steve, will you return to your pithy ways, shining sarcastic light into our otherwise prosaic days?" Others are more straightforward: "Enough with the fershlugginer poetry already! Oy."Well, friends, the contest is almost at an end. Round 4 was obviously too close to call. As that leaves me at a decided disadvantage going into the last round, you would think that I would be upset. Not at all. The last round prompted me to renew my acquantaince with Calvin and his little stuffed friend, all the while providing me welcome relief from having to watch my Angels drop two in a row to the hated Giants. So that ain't bad.
Round 5 will follow as soon as "timeless" provides us with the topic. The score currently stands at Wendy 2, Steve 1, with one tie. So I need a win here to force a haiku-off. I'm sure that those of you who are weary of the whole affair won't allow that to influence your vote. (C'mon, guys! Vote for me! I'm cool! I'll be your friend! I'll bake you cookies! Well, not me, but my wife!)
Meantime, in the real world, I was never more glad to get a sermon over with than on Sunday. I struggled with it pretty much start to finish and, even though nice people said nice things about it, the overwhelming emotion I felt when it was over was relief. Any of you regular preacher types ever feel that? Just a "Man, am I glad that's over and I can get back to dealing with the regular stuff" feeling?
And while I've got you on the hook, preacher-types, let me ask you another question, one which you may or may not relate to. I'm almost finished with "A New Kind of Christian" by McLaren. The "fictional" style is driving me crazy but the ideas within are heady stuff. Most of you are probably way ahead of me on the whole postmodernism deal. But I feel like most of the points are valid. I've never been mired in modernity as much as a lot of people, mostly because of the way I was raised to think. But this book rightly challenges us to live our faith in new ways, ways which many Christians find difficult if not downright offensive.
Without going into a summary of a lot of things many of you already know, let me just ask my question. How do we, as preachers, as elders, as leaders, usher people into a new kind of Christianity? Some of you may feel we shouldn't. I value your reponses too. But for those of you who struggle/have struggled with this, what have you done? How do we teach a new kind of approach to scripture...to worship...to salvation, etc...to people who aren't willing...aren't receptive...aren't ready to listen? Maybe there are no answers here, but if nothing else, I would like to start the discourse.
We are leaving Sunday for a week at the beach. I'm hoping to have a laptop connection there so that the contest and the discussion aren't interrupted for a week. But if I go all silent running for a while, you'll know why.
And finally, in the style of Paul who liked to end his letters with a whazzup and a shout out or three, I want to welcome Josh to our section of blogland and welcome Tony back. A great big "Good to have you" and "Good to see you" to those two dudes. And a "Where's Judy?" to bring things to a temporary close.
posted by Thurman8er @ 10:31 AM
4 Comments:
That is just *so* wrong.
Trading wife cookies
For votes is mercenary.
(Can't win on talent?)
How DOES a Christian convince the skeptical, disenfranchised soul that God's way is a better way? (Read my comment on Wendy's blog site on her BD blog for me) How DOES one fully describe the awesome and amazing tangible things that can happen to them just from that simple act of faith to turn ones life over to God? How does one describe that seemingly magical "thing" that happens to hearts and minds as one is lifted from the water or as one rededicates themselves to God? I can only speak from my experience. I was B&R CoC...I walked away at 19. During that 20 years of being lost, I never felt that I was good enough to be a Christian...it was ALL about truely believing that God could never love or accept me. But my "return" was 100 times sweeter than when I was baptized. It was better than I ever imagined...to fully feel that God loved ME...a sinner. Again, this is not "scholarly"...but I think this whole issue of winning souls for God is always broken down to simple faith that lives WILL be changed...CAN be changed, if you just "LET HIM" water and nourish the seeds we plant. Lost souls need simple words...they need to hear our "stories" about that magical feeling of the Spirit moving INTO us as we submitted to God...or our stories of answered prayer in tangible ways. We need to witness to them in personal ways to the point where THEY want what we have. It all boils down to the bottom line...that "leap of faith". It's telling yourself, "I can't...God can...so I think I'll let Him!"
Round 5 topic will appear in an e-mail to both of you...
Steve,
Just one thought here.
Giants Rule!!!!
And of course by "Rule" I mean can't get above .500, but can at least beat the "Los Angeles of Aneheim in Sourthern Calfornia also part of Calfifornia proper and repesenting the West Coast while brought to you by Disney Angels"
Hey my Summer Buddy. Enjoy the vacation.
As to your question, I think in some areas we're just one generation away from getting away from the attitudes that prevent us as a collected body from being Jesus to other folks. I see our teens taking it to the next level and leaving some of the judgemental behaviors that we adults tend to exhibit behind.
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