January 2012
6 posts
“The pattern of grace, in other words, leaves every reason to hope that no one...”
– George Hunsinger
Never trust anyone with 9 keys to anything.
I saw this post last week floating around the internet on various social media sites. Because of how it relates to my role of working with young people in the church I was intrigued. I think it’s fair to say the scope of this piece is wildly pejorative.
One of the main issues people in my field cannot stop talking about is why young adults are leaving the church. I am not really interested...
“It is essential, in my view, to abandon altogether talk of “redeeming the...”
– James Davidson Hunter, To Change The World
twenty-eleven.
music:
10. explosions in the sky take care, take care, take care
9. manchester orchestra simple math
8. portugal. the man in the mountain in the cloud
7. the pains of being pure at heart belong
6. ryan adams ashes and fire
5. the weeknd echoes of silence
4. jay z || kanye west watch the throne
3. florence + the machine ceremonials
2. bon iver bon iver
1. m83 hurry up we’re...
In truth, however, without the practice of the... →
Stanley Hauerwas (follow the link to the entire article)
December 2011
1 post
We Bid Your Presence: On Reading Psalm 22
We know about your presence
that fills the world,
that occupies our life,
that makes our life in the world true and good.
We notice your powerful transformative presence
in word and
in sacrament,
in food and in water,
in gestures of mercy
and practices of justice,
in gentle neighbors
and daring gratitude.
We count so on your presence
and then plunge - without intending...
November 2011
1 post
:: 11.11.11 :: War, death and coming home
Taken from The Classical:
I’ll be taking the day off. I don’t want thanks. I don’t want a parade. I don’t want my experience boiled down to 30 seconds so it can be easily digestible to a national audience. I will want to talk to the handful of people I know who can understand what it’s like to run over a vehicle with an M1A1 tank like the world is a sunbeaten, bullet-riddled monster truck...
August 2011
5 posts
“there is hell now,
and there is hell later,
and jesus teaches us to take both...”
– robBELL, love wins
WatchWe took a group of HPPC Middle Schoolers to Colorado a few weeks ago. Here is the video of our adventure there.
Divided: The end of youth ministry?
A couple of weeks ago I watched this documentary on the modern state of youth ministry in America. I recommend taking the time to watch it. I was impressed on a number of levels with the quality of work the young filmmaker Philip Leclerc offered. I was also extremely disappointed with many of the conclusions the film offers. I encourage you to watch the film (its only 55 minutes) and then dialogue...
“A seminary which prides itself on attention to languages yet fails to construct...”
July 2011
2 posts
June 2011
4 posts
WatchBon Iver on Colbert Report || Calgary
imagination+struggle | the thoughts of MrCrowder:... →
mrcrowder:
This morning while having conversation with the city’s director for Back On My Feet and the other team leaders for BOMF’s shelters in Dallas, something came up that doesn’t really hit me as odd (I sort of expect it, unfortunately) but I did think it was worth mentioning.
After all, the most we…
The deepest enemy to Christianity is not atheism,... →
Stanley Hauerwas on uninteresting Christians. From Alter Video Magazine.
May 2011
2 posts
Creating to Forgive
On Tuesday I posed a question on twitter: “Did God create the world to forgive it?”
I received emphatic yes’s and no’s. Some provided nuance, others didn’t. The original thought came from something I read from Miroslav Volf in Free of Charge: Giving and Forgiving in a Culture Stripped of Grace. He writes:
A story claiming to be rabbinic appeared in a newspaper...
song of the day.
group therapy, blake jennings
...
April 2011
7 posts
“The Messiah was supposed to win the decisive victory over the pagans, to rebuild...”
– ntWRIGHT, the resurrection of the son of God 557
“Speak out for those who cannot speak. Who in the church today realizes that this...”
– dietrichBONHOEFFER
speak out by not speaking
“Love is what will hold the church together when various pressures threaten to...”
– ntWRIGHT, the resurrection of the son of God
WatchStand in solidarity with abducted and voiceless children with Invisible Children. Find out about it here.
March 2011
6 posts
“Radical self-denial gives the feel of adventure. If we forsake all, we even have...”
– richardFOSTER, celebration of discipline
“The Psalms, with few exceptions, are not the voice of God addressing us. They...”
– Walter Brueggemann, Praying the Psalms
On Criticism.
…But these men have already had their so-called orthodoxy for a long time. They are closed to anything else, they will cling to it at all costs, and they can adopt toward me only the role of prosecuting attorneys, trying to establish whether what I represent agrees or disagrees with their orthodoxy, in which I for my part have no interest! None of their questions leaves me with the...
February 2011
3 posts
imagination+struggle | the thoughts of MrCrowder:... →
mrcrowder:
While reading a Hauerwas gem, Resident Aliens, I came across a piece that pulls at my heart. In an excerpt where the author is revealing a conversation between two leaders in a local church, the speakers begin discussing the need for their church to run a daycare.
“Why is the church in the…
ordinary :: part II
Before venturing any further into this ordinary vs. radical series I think some things need to be clarified.
First, radicalism is not what is under the microscope here. It is the creation of radicalism as some sort of end for discipleship that is being taken to task. Radicalism is not something one can pursue - it is something he/she naturally becomes (and most likely through very ordinary...
January 2011
8 posts
Peter Rollins [poets, prophets, preachers] →
So much tension in everything Pete Rollins says and I love it.
speak but a whisper, i'll hear a sermon.
I asked Abby to marry me this past weekend. It was, undoubtedly, an incredible night. She totally thought I was in Colorado snowboarding and I surprised her at her parents lake house. Needless to say, she was pretty overwhelmed by it all. We celebrated with our close friends and family friday night and into saturday. The community we share is a gift we are consistently thankful for. Looking...
ordinary.
I’m a student pastor director. Before that I was a student intern. Before that I was a student volunteer. Before that I was a member of a student ministry. Before that, I thought I wanted to be a student pastor because they took cool trips.
But. I’ve always felt a healthy bit of ambivalence towards student ministry. On the one hand I think it is very important for the Church to...
Watchchristmas morning with the family.
“I soon realized that if I was going to spend the rest of my life drinking bad...”
– yvonCHOUINARD, let my people go surfing: the education of a reluctant businessman
revphred: What Little We Give Away Multiplies -... →
fredharrell:
The world likes things to be large, big, impressive, and elaborate. God chooses the small things which are overlooked in the big world. Andrew’s remark, “five barley loaves and two fish; but what is that among so many?” captures well the mentality of a calculating mind. It sounds as if he says to…
December 2010
6 posts
twenty-ten.
2010 bests.
songs.
10. dry my eyes - paper aeroplanes
9. opposite of adults - chiddy bang
8. 10 mile stereo - beach house
7. nw apt. - band of horses
6. teenage dream - the rescues (not katy perry’s version)
5. run the heart - sleigh bells
4. wake up your saints - the national
3. grow till tall - jonsi
2. awake my soul - mumford and sons
1. sprawl II (mountains beyond mountains)...
The incarnation did not occur so that we could decorate trees and get upset with people who say ‘Happy Holidays’ instead of ‘Merry Christmas’. The incarnation is the coming of God
as man to fulfill what was promised and to stand as God’s yes to the world.
advent 2010 || theology of hope
Moltmann’s second chapter, Promise and History, is one of the best things I have read all year. He continues to develop his thesis that God is revealed in promise. This relates not only to God’s future but to God’s faithfulness in the past. God’s very character is grounded in his ability to remain faithful to what he has promised. This is to be understood in...
Richard Rohr on Advent via Brad Griffin of FYI →
“Come, Lord Jesus,” the Advent mantra, means that all of Christian history has to live out of a kind of deliberate emptiness, a kind of chosen non-fulfillment. Perfect fullness is always to come, and we do not need to demand it now. This keeps the field of life wide open and especially open to grace and to a future created by God rather than us.”
