“… Be present especially with the young who must choose between many voices. Help them to know how much an old world needs their youth and gladness. Help them to know that there are words of truth an healing that will never be spoken unless they speak them, and deeds of compassion and courage that will never be done unless they do them. Help them never to mistake success for victory or failure for defeat. Grant that they may never be entirely content with whatever bounty the world may bestow upon them, but that they may know at last that they were created not for happiness but for joy, and that joy is to him alone who, sometimes with tears in his eyes, commits himself in love to thee and his brothers. Lead them and all thy world ever deeper into the knowledge that finally all men are one and that there can really be joy any until there is joy for all. In Christ’s name we ask it and for his sake. Amen”-Frederick Beuchner, The Hungering Dark, page 33
Theology
ashes on your forehead : a little diddy for those with dirty foreheads today
this was just too cute. my buddy eric coomer sent it to me. i haven’t checked out jonathan rundmans’s other works, but eric says they are really good as well.
kleenex & tissues : talking about the holy spirit
kleenex & tissues and the Holy Spirit from Gavin Richardson on Vimeo.
last week i went to hang with my friends at the nashville cohort. we had our annual, ‘what are you thinking about’ session. one of the questions had to do with the our understanding of the Holy Spirit and how to communicate to others what that is.
certainly as methodists we have our ‘strangely warmed‘ historic experience that we can be comfortable with a physical reaction in our bodies to the spirit’s movement, but for so many people our modern idea of the Holy Spirit comes from azusa street & the birth of pentecostal movement.
my odd connection in our conversation this day was to say, this is basically a kleenex & tissue issue. when you grab something to blow your nose what do you call that thing? many times you’d call it a kleenex.. however, kleenex is just a brand name for a tissue. however, we often don’t distinguish the two as different. they are one in the same. the tissue has been has a history longer than the kleenex, but we still mix the two. same thing with the Holy Spirit.. sorta..
we’ve allowed the pentecostal movement to lay claim to the Holy Spirit and brand it as what we often times know today. so there is a need to, as we talk about & experience the Holy Spirit, to let folks know that we are experiencing the ’tissue’ not necessarily the kleenex.
theology of twitter : spirituality and social media
emergent conversant, fellow social media friend, steve knight put together this presentation on a theology of twitter. it has some great content. maybe the greatest content is him quoting me from my spirituality and social media series i did with matt cheuvront.
The Theology Of Twitter
View more presentations from Steve Knight.
crummy church signs : thou shalt remember the sabbath.. or try
i’ve chronicled this church before and their interesting church sign sayings. this one popped up yesterday and all I could think about was “what about the sabbath?” suppose that is lazy even though god mandates that.