It’s exciting to see something that we’ve worked on get some good press! I especially love the line that describes RiverKidStuf, simply, as “innovative programming that also gets parents involved [and] children bring their parents” to learn. The show works on two levels so that both the children and the adults appreciate and understand the message.

The whole idea is that parents should be the primary spiritual influence in their kids’ lives, and the church can – and should – support that. Our church, River Community, and the many others that do a KidStuf production, do so to provide a shared experience for the whole family, to get kids and their parents on the same page, better able to talk about the same stuff. This is a great way to help parents, who may not be comfortable talking about spiritual things themselves, talk to their kids about God.

The Advocate’s write-up is definitely worth a read, if anyone’s interested in more info.

His first blog post is quite humorous – it’s his email correspondence with Barack and Michelle Obama. Check it out here. The blog is running on WordPress, of course.

Oh, and if you haven’t read Blue Like Jazz, I do highly recommend it!

Americans are knee-deep in the unprecedented phenomenon of grouped isolation—what [Randy] Frazee refers to as “crowded loneliness.” We are in desperate need of meaningful relationships, yet too busy and too pulled to maintain them.

Even worse, our attempts to relieve our sense of isolation often contribute to our fragmentation. We might join a small group, for example. We’ll get in contact with 3 to 11 other dedicated Christians and commit to meet and study the Bible every week.

But what happens? Those 3 to 11 people become another chunk of relationships that we have to manage [. . .]

I appreciate the insight that meditating on scripture can help to “defrag” (as one commenter on the post puts it) our often-hectic lives. I think, though, that we need to find an additional solution to de-fragment community. Part of the solution has to be continued emphasis on the idea that the church is not meant to be just another box for us to tick off our list — the church community (globally and locally) is a body in which all individual believers are an essential part, which also means that believers need to be integrated into the body, otherwise they will wither and dry up.

In the United States especially there is a tendency to consider church just a Sunday activity — one of many different activities in which we participate. We may sign up for a small group, but then that small group’s meetings will be just a Monday night activity (or whenever the group meets). I do think it’s critical that we Christians understand that Christianity is not just another personal belief system — it’s a community-focused way of life.

It’s an interesting question, and the article/column is excited about a February ’06 statement by Evangelical leaders called the “Evangelical Climate Initiative”, which you can read about at www.ChristiansandClimate.org.

In the Bible (Genesis 1), “God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’” That was the first recorded command to humankind, right after God created and blessed them. (The second chapter of Genesis does give us the story of God’s command to not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which may, chronologically have occurred first, but I mean, here, that it is not the first-mentioned command.)

Clearly God gave the authority to “fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion [...] over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Rather than see that as a blank check, however, I believe that the God-given authority comes with responsibility. We (human beings) are to responsibly exercise our dominion over this world.

I’m all for a healthy environment; I have/get to live here too. Perhaps the better question than, “Should I, as a Christian, be pro-environment?” is to ask, “How are we to care for this world that God has entrusted to us and balance that with being fruitful and multiplying?”

My brother (Ben) highlights a call in the Washington Post to stop stereotyping evangelical Christians. The Post column rightfully points out the role of Christians in the promotion of social justice, because of “a love for their neighbor.” It does sound like evangelicals are working to “save the earth.”
Social justice is not all that Christians are called to do, of course. There is Jesus’s essential call to “make disciples of all nations.” And I neglected to point out, above, that the human responsibility to manage the earth is truly a job of management. God does not say “the whole world is yours.” On the contrary, the Bible often says that the earth is the Lord’s. We are stewards.

Clearly, Christians should not and do not want to see the climate entrusted to them ruined. Perhaps that should be another reason to not stereotype. Not everyone agrees on how far or where to go in caring for the environment. But regardless of what we think about global warming, let’s ensure that we don’t forget about how we handle the gifts we have been given:

For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master’s money. Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here I have made five talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here I have made two talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.’ But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sowed and gather where I scattered no seed? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ (Matthew 25:14-30)

Surveys and marketing as tools (and not as ends in of themselves) are valuable because they can help us be “all things to all people.” Paul’s letters are clearly targeted at different audiences in order to speak to each in a manner most befitting the local culture, background, and situation. Hence why we have Romans, Corinthians, etc.

This is by no means a call for relativism, because the Gospel remains the same and universal, but Jesus was very clear when he ordered his disciples to go and make disciples of all nations. The disciples often accomplished this by leaving their homes (as Jesus had modeled) and living with the communities in which they would establish a new branch of the Church.

Community is such an important part of the body of Christ, and, while the focus should always be on the people — even more than on the processes — a basic, systematic order to the life of the community is something that church leaders have seen fit to establish from the start. Jesus picked out twelve men to start the church. The disciples, when one of them was lost, recognized the importance of replacing that one in order to restore the original group’s number. They also recognized that their primary purpose in the life of the early Church consisted of preaching the word of God, so they encouraged and pushed for others to do other things such as caring for widows (see Acts 6). In the 16th century, Reformed leaders such as Calvin and Zwingli were very caught up in the idea of establishing an order. Today we often refer to an “order of worship” (and that phrase has been around for centuries).

Having a method is good and necessary. Worship, fellowship, discipleship, ministry, and evangelism are all essential ingredients in the lives of churches. People and communities are different, so what works in San Clemente, CA may or may not work as well in Alpharetta, GA. Different people need to hear different things and in different ways — that’s why the Gospel is told four different times (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John)! I applaud the apparent effectiveness of the Purpose Driven Church formula in some churches, and I hope that individuals remember that the formula can work well in other places so long as you modify the formula to fit the new place. You never need to change the Gospel message, but you may need to speak a different language.

Read about the “Phone Scam” at HP here. I guess HP will need to revise the “Governance and ethics” part of their web site.

Leaders are supposed to lead with integrity, something that is far-too-often lacking in American culture (corporate and otherwise).

I actually saw a couple minutes of a recent episode of the TV show, Big Brother: All Stars. “ICK” was my primary reaction to the show. I was reminded of why I rarely watch television. The guy named Will was in a relationship with a woman on the show to try to get himself to the top. He admits this, referring to the relationship as something along the lines of a “faux-lationship”. You can actually watch the show at CBS.com, not that I’m promoting it or anything; in fact, you’d be fine just taking my word for it.

The sad thing is that many people consider it normal to deceive others to get what they want and fulfull their ambitions, if it’s necessary. What’s expedient so often replaces what’s helpful and what will build up others. The problem with today’s culture is that there is little perceived need to be helpful; little perceived need to build up others. Selfishness abounds due to the common belief in the importance of self-happiness and to the desire to make oneself happy.

Ask most American’s what their greatest desire in life is, and they will answer: “To be happy.” That is normal, even for Christians, who so often set themselves apart as holier-than-thou because of the issues for which they choose to fight. The issues, however, are not as important as the people, and this is frequently lost sight of by American Christians in the current politicized environment.

The Bible provides these pertinent remarks:

“All things are lawful,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful,” but not all things build up. Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor. (ESV).

A great chasm exists between what I can do and what I ought do. American culture lives in the space between those two ends. The understanding that there is an “ought do” still exists in the back of our collective mind, and that end pulls us away from living at the “can do” — but only so long as the “I need to be happy” mentality does not enter the picture. At that point, whatever I can do (to be happy) is what I should do.

An understanding of the gross inadequacy of living to be individually happy, at the expense of whatever needs to be expensed, means focusing not on issues, but on other people. This culturally antithetic outlook is one that Christians, at least, should adopt “for the glory of God.“

The site teems with interesting content — as if you were taking a tour through the halls of the Vatican — and with what seems to be most of the last decade’s worth of Papal teaching and declarations. You’ll find no shortage or reading material here!

Want to read the biographies, speeches, letters, or homilies of any of the last ten popes? You can. The first section of the site is called “The Holy Father” and allows you to even read about Pope John Paul I, who died about a month after becoming Pope.

There are five other divisions to the site’s structure (after the Holy See): The Roman Curia, News Services, Vatican City State, Liturgical Year, and Liturgical Celebrations. A search feature (outsourced to a company called Mondosoft) also allows you to search by language, document title, or age (one week, one month, or older). You can also look at pages by categories and documents by their authors. It’s all been thought out rather well, except that when you choose your language (I chose English, in case you were wondering), you are directed to a page consisting of concentric circles, some of which you have to mouse over in order to figure out what they are for. If you click on a link to view another page, you see a more typically structured web page, with menus on the top and side. However, there is no way to return to the main navigation page — click on the logo in the top-left corner of the page and you’ll be directed back to the home page to re-select your language again.

The main navigation page is fascinating to examine; the church — which looks much like a watermark — is in the center, surrounded by a circle of six icons that lead you to most of the site’s content. The current Pope, Benedict XVI, is sort of attached to this circle, but his picture is the same size of the central church image and the text of his name extends from him, across the circle, to the central church. Outside of the first circle is another circle of links (images of text) that lead you to very specific content: site map, Peter’s Pence, W.Y.D. (World Youth Day), etc. Outside of that circle is a quarter of the last circle, entitled “Focus”. These links appear to be what, lately, is highlighted for the benefit and ease of navigation of the site’s visitors. Just above the “Focus” is a search text box (the only non-image object on the page). Click on the mosaics picture in the bottom-left corner to visit the “Redemptoris Mater” site — a multimedia tour of the chapel that acts as the Pope’s own spiritual retreat.

When you check out a section of the site, such as the Vatican City State, links appear on the left-hand side of the page that allow you to see topics included under that section heading. Some of those links, however, are not enabled, as apparently some content is missing or not yet included. It’s a bit frustrating to mouse over text such as “Visit” and to be unable to click. I, for one, would love to visit the Vatican (even though I’m not Roman Catholic).

It’s not a perfect site, but still is worth an extended visit. I wonder what it would be like to have the job title “Papal Web Master”.