Archive for the ‘culture’ Category

Christian Politics, rd 3

If you checked out CNN.com yesterday, you may have noticed that a story about Shane Claiborne and the “Jesus for President” tour was the lead story on the front page for a while.  Here’s the link.  (ht)
Here’s an excerpt with a good quote from the interview with Shane:
They endorse no candidate and make no effort [...]

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the enculturation process continues

An honest attempt at humor with one of my neighbors that went south earlier tonight:
“Well, we didn’t have a White Christmas, and now, so much for a White New Year’s!” she called out cheerfully to me as Damon and I walked past her.
“Seriously! Chalk it up to global warming!” I torted.
“Global Warming? What’s [...]

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the challenges of traditional church in my neighborhood

As we spend more and more time in our new Boston neighborhood — in people’s homes or chatting in the park — we become even more convicted that the modes of evangelism that “worked” in the Bible Belt are moot on our block. (I’m growing more and more convinced that modes of evangelism that “work” [...]

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An Evening With Garrison Keillor

It was a feeling akin to the one that comes when you meet someone — a long, lost relative, let’s say — whom you’ve never met but always heard about. It was the flesh-and-bone version of the silky, baritone voice that previously existed only in myths we joined as they unfolded between six and [...]

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political (un)involvement

I had a talk the other day with our friends Aaron and Amy about politics and faith. “Steve probably took the radical leftist viewpoint,” you’re thinking. (I know, I know — I have in the past been guilty of being over-passionate about my viewpoint in political discussions).
But on Sunday, I took a different [...]

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DMV, temping, evening walk

Today began kinda crappy. Chrissy and I were at the Mass. Dept. of Motor Vehicles as they were opening (8:30 a.m.) to get our new driver’s licenses. Chrissy had checked out what all we needed to bring, of course, and we were definitely on the ball. After getting a number, filling out [...]

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living in God’s story

This week I am in a challenging and Christ-centered class called “Living in God’s Story: Spiritual Formation in Missions.” We have talked about the spiritual disciplines, about church, about the nature of the Trinity, about our “missional God,” and many, many other things. Dr. Earl Lavender, director of missions at Lipscomb, is teaching [...]

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world-creation

I don’t want to be a church planter as much as I want to be a world-creator/enactor.
Let me explain.
Walter Brueggemann has popularized the image of the preacher as a poet who causes people to imagine new worlds and calls them to inhabit them:
The event of preaching is an event in transformed imagination. Poets, in [...]

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ever feel like Christianity has been co-opted by the “religious right”?

…then read this great essay by Time Magazine columnist Andrew Sullivan.
Sometimes I wonder if the word “Christian” is even useful in our nation anymore. If people outside of Christianity consistently think of the wrong thing when a believer identifies himself as such, does the identifying term maintain any use? If the majority of [...]

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