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Emergent

the “manly” influence of boys : a different way

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i have been wanting to post on this topic for awhile. i just never had enough to say. so i wanted to find and show this video. well, it wasn’t on the internet, so i had to find my copy of the video and get it uploaded. this is joe ehrmann, a former nfl player and now coach. he has a unique way and perspective on how we poorly build boys into men. this is well worth your time to catch a glimpse of a different way of raising men.

it reminds me that rethinking youth ministry highlighted this "hard as nails" ministry. in watching that i was taken back to some further thoughts. the idea being, what kind of men are we making for the kingdom.

months back i was intrigued in hearing about coach rush propst, the former head football coach from hoover high school (star of mtv’s two a days), resigning (read between the lines, fired) from his position mid-season.

i had an interest in the show partly because hoover high school, wasn’t created at the time, but would be my high school alma mater if our family stayed in birmingham. i would have actually graduated from berry high school, which is now one of the hoover middle schools. i would have been part of one of the final graduating classes from berry, before people moved into hoover.

watching two-a-days, i didn’t like coach propst, i thought the methods of getting a winning team and the way he treated parents and kids was just awful. so i wasn’t upset to see him go, but i wondered, why do we have so many "men" who are allowed to treat boys in such ways under the guise of "making them men?".. this cannot be good for the kingdom. being a man is not about being macho, unlike what mark driscoll dressed in his metro-sexual stylings would like you to know. being a man is not about being tough stuff.

Christ never put down, beat up, demeaned, yelled at, forced participation, or threatened in order to share the vision of the kingdom. why do we put up with people who go against those practices so actively? is it because we spend money on travel teams or our youth’s sports? we hope our child to grow up and be successful professional athlete? we live out our real dreams through our children and this person is considered a ‘gatekeeper’… i just don’t know..


note: this is a trimmed version. a full version with bryant gumbel’s reactions, which are good, can be found here.

what you focus on dictates what you miss : revisit festival of homiletics

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last spring a group of us local misfits pulled together to help lead worship at the festival of homiletics that brian mcalren was leading. during the worship or his speaking session he showed a video and it was one of those moments when everyone was baffled. i was packing up brian’s equipment after the session was over while he was receiving people with their questions and thanks. many of the questions were "where can i find that video" which he apparently had some kids do. thanks to jonny, here is a similar video.

the simple statement from brian was, whatever you focus on dictates what you miss (paraphrase). if you are going to focus on this person or that person then you will miss the third person. if you are going to be focused on defending the bible then you might forget the people who need a lunch.. etc.. i loved it

worship feast prayer stations : do you have a copy

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are you one of the millions, thousands, maybe hundred or so that have a copy of my "worship feast prayer stations" cdrom? if so could you email me and tell me what prayer stations are highlighted in the cdrom? i was wanting to post some of the videos & pdf’s that didn’t make the resource but i have given away all the copies i had of it so i don’t know anymore what was on there. thanks in advance

in case: if you didn’t know, i have this cdrom out there on prayer stations. Worship Feast Prayer Stations, put out by abingdon press. it was set up to be a primer to get people started on doing their own, but have no idea about them or where to start. it has some meditative background images, original music, and video and pdfs on how to do some specific prayer stations plus alternatives which make up a total of around 20 prayer stations. not bad for a $20 price.

the declaration of independence reframed

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i can’t help but share this. it hit me like a ton of bricks. the follow is an encounter brian mclaren had at davos a few weeks ago.

Another moment – when a Muslim conversation partner introduced me to
a group of Muslims I hadn’t met: "This is my friend, Brian." When
people stop being "that Jew" or "that Christian" or "that Muslim," and
instead become "my friend," followed by a real name … the state of the
world improves a little bit.

And another – sitting with a Muslim scholar who explained to me, "If
you want to understand our struggle, think of your own Declaration of
Independence." She rehearsed the lines, known by heart: "… we hold
these truths to be self-evident … created equal … endowed by their
Creator with certain inalienable rights." She asked me what these lines
were intended to do, to accomplish. I replied, "To counter the
pre-modern notion of the divine right of kings with a new notion – of
the God-given rights of individuals." Why, she asked, was it important
to bring God in? "Because God represents an authority higher than a
king’s authority. If God gives individuals rights, a king loses his
right to abrogate them."

Then she said, "This is a primary reason why there is such a
religious revival in Islam. Millions of Muslims live under
dictatorships. They need to have their human rights validated
theologically so they can gain freedom from dictators, just as American
colonists wanted to gain freedom from the king in 1776." Sadly, she
added, many of these dictators have remained in power with U.S.
support, which helps explain much of the antipathy toward U.S. foreign
policy. A simple thought, perhaps obvious to many, but it clicked for
me as never before.

1. i like how brian explains the declaration of independence, that God is above kings. so it is no surprise that in that it hit like a ton of bricks… why do we enable other countries to live in a framework that we would not allow ourselves to be in. i am not advocating nation building, like we are experiencing in Afghanistan or Iraq, certainly we did much to help them to where they were. but what if there were other creative means to enable all people to live where God is ultimate authority? even over that of a king or president? hmm..

 

fading emergent church

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interesting post on observations that the emerging church is starting to fade away. although i won’t pick apart the case made, i will say, it isn’t so much fading away but morphing and being brought into the main life of the church. our cohort has only grown in interest and attendance. publishing deals are being struck, with books being written that might not be by the main guys, but influenced by the conversation. mainline/emergent conferences are popping up everywhere & all year long because people want to share & hear what emerging is all about. it might not be a fancy buzz at the moment, but i don’t see it waining at any point soon.

thoughts?