Christvertising
I pray to the God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob…to the Yahweh of Judah…that this is a joke (and it would be funny…except that if reflects some reality in the religion industry today). There are a lot of ways to go with this but I’ll just post this link and see if anything develops in the comments…  Thanks Mark (I think) for sending me this link.

Serbs clash with UN and NATO in north Kosovo | Reuters

It’s hard to keep up with all the unrest in the world these days. I have a Google alert regarding the Kosovo situation because of my travels in that region and because I have friends who live there. Their are complex arguments on all sides of these ethnic clashes and many of the claims made predate the formation of our country. Take a couple of minutes today (at least the amount of time you took filling out your NCAA Tournament brackets) to educate yourself about an issue or about ongoing conflict outside our borders.  Create a Google Alert regarding that issue.  Be an informed consumer of the news and an informed voter.  Here are a couple of links that might help your search:
The Carter Center: Waging Peace. Fighting Disease. Building Hope.
Save Darfur
The One Campaign
Compassion International
World Vision
Peace Corps

Can Baptists Cooperate? « Tony Jones

I attended the gathering that Tony refers to in his blog post linked above. It was a good meeting in Asheville and Tony did an excellent job with his presentation as well. (check out his new book The New Christians:Dispatches from the Emergent Frontier)

I have been involved in what has become the “emergent conversation” for several years now. McLaren, Jones, Padgett, Scandrette, Keel et al. created a network and named the conversation, but it was a conversation taking place across the spectrum of Christian denominations and faith traditions. When we actually saw books putting into words our hunches, frustrations, dreams, etc. it was a total OK-I’m-not-alone-out-here kind of moment. (I remember distinctly asking my wife to read the first few paragraphs of McLaren’s A New Kind of Christian, and she replied back, “Did you write this?”, referring to my own transition from vocational ministry to secular vocation and back and the similar feelings I shared with the character Pastor Dan–“One year from today I will not be in the ministry.”  Like pastor Dan, my prediction was wrong as well.)

The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and Emmanuel Baptist Church (Alexandria, LA) were actually the vehicles that led me initially into this emerging church conversation early in the 1990s. I was employed within the systems of the Southern Baptist Convention and observing the noise and clamor of Baptists fighting from the inside was at the very least disillusioning and more accurately faith-destroying. However, running parallel to the Southern Baptist train-wreck were these two institutions: Emmanuel and CBF. Neither were wowing anyone with anything approaching numerical growth. Both had their own problems. It would have been impossible to go “Pollyanna” about either. However, the community of faith I found in those places felt like home.

This post has gotten WAY too long. I’ll just end abruptly by saying it was very cool to read in Tony’s blog, “thems my people”. It was nice for someone from one side of my family to recognize the resemblance to the other side of my family.

Rowan Williams

This is from my readings a couple days ago. I’ve read it before but for some reason it seemed to resonate a little more deeply on this particular day. One thing that education and life experience rob you of is your innocence…or maybe just your naivety. There was a time that I could get pretty emotional about the “Abba, Father” sermon. It was quite simple because I have a model “earthly father” to project upon my image of God. When taken to a divine degree, it made for a pretty impressive Father God. Then I went off to seminary to get my credentials…learn to minister, to preach, to vocationally do what I felt “called” to do. I’ve lived within this vocation for about 20 years in various forms. It has been an interesting and rewarding journey for the most part.

However, one thing I’ve realized over the last couple of years is how jaded I have become concerning religion. I’ve found that it fits well in the old adage, “Legislation and sausage are two things that are much better appreciated if you don’t have to watch them being made.” For me, religion can easily be added to that list. My understanding and experience of God is for the most part a vocational, religious and abstract exercise. It has been well outside my experience to actually engage “Father God” in the concrete ways alluded to by Rowan Williams.

The closest I have come to that was hearing my own cancer diagnosis almost a year ago and lying in my bed at night pleading to live to see my grand kids. However, as the urgency of that time fades away with each clear report from my doctor, I easily equate those emotional prayers with the trauma of that initial experience. Please hear me accurately. I am not trying to be overly dramatic, nor am I saying I’m an agnostic or atheist. I am merely saying, a tangible relational experience of God has ranged from difficult to non-existent in recent years.

I’m attempting to adopt some new practices into my spiritual life. I’ll see what happens. My rational self remains rather skeptical about the outcomes of these new routines. I’m sort of at the point that I want to say to myself, “Don’t just do something, STAND there!” I’m weary of DOING religious stuff. I would like to be in a living relationship. It would be cool for it to approach my relationship with my dad. Instead, it’s still an abstract exercise at best.

Flock Browser – The Social Web Browser
OK…I’m a fan.  I’ve been using the Flock browser for several weeks now and love it.  Check it out!  It really makes tasks like email, Facebook, uploading photos, blogging, reading news feeds, keeping up with blog feeds, etc. extremely easy.  Check it out and let me know what you think.  I never thought I would quit using Firefox but I haven’t opened it in 2 weeks.  I think you’ll love it.