Postmodern Renaissance Culture Revolutionary

Now that the 2012 election is over and we are looking forward to 4 more years with President Obama, I feel the need to reflect and project. I believe that our nation is becoming more divided. At almost every level of our culture we experience divisions. The United Methodist Church is even so divided that we are divided on whether or not we are divided. We live in a nation where looking for common ground is replaced with strategic placement on our ideological battlegrounds. I believe that a revolution is brewing. What shape it will take, I don't know. But in a climate where the sides have no desire to reach out to one another there will only be a climactic conflict of some type. For those who read this that have an intense hatred for President Obama, I have to ask, "Why?" The President does not control the economy. The President is not responsible for jobs disappearing. If it is his stand on abortion or gay marriage, do you also hate that woman who makes that impossibl...

This is a review of Craig Groeschel's new work, Chazown. This book was provided to me at no cost by WaterBrook Multnomah in exchange for an honest review. Chazown is the Hebrew word that is translated often as "vision". As in, "without vision, the people perish (Proverbs 29:18)." It doesn't mean the physical ability to see, but the heart's or mind's ability to see. And churches need vision to accomplish mission. There are some basic prerequisites for this book. If you do not believe in God or the work of Jesus Christ as Traditional Christianity defines, then you don't need to read this. This book is not designed for pew-squatters who prefer to define church by which pew is theirs or if the preacher lets them out on time. It shouldn't be read by anyone who wants to just take the church for granted, believing that church exists for their benefit or what they can get out of it. This book is for believers who seriously feel called to do somethi...

I received an advance reading copy of Ron Carpenter, Jr.'s book, The Necessity of an Enemy, from WaterBrook Multnomah. I found this book through the regular mailings that pastors receive from Pastor Resources Magazine. What is an enemy and how do they apply in the Christian life? That is at the heart of this book. Enemies are not basic, minor annoyances of life. For Carpenter, enemies are the events/persons/choice we make that could potentially derail the journey of faith. Carpenter shares experiences from his own ministry of major events that could have ended his ministry, marriage, family unity, and even his life. The title implies that the true enemies that we encounter in life are part of the process of developing Godly, Christ-like lives. If there is an enemy present, there is potential to grow. But giving into an enemy is very easy. Therefore we need to protect ourselves. We definitely live in an age where dealing with "enemies" needs to be taught in the churc...

This ebook was provided by the WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group in exchange for an honest review. I have to say up front that this was a difficult book to read. Not because of content, but format. It did not work well on my Kindle. The content was easy to read and did press on some deep emotional stumbling block that do stand in the way of developing the Christ following so many desire. I believe that this book is helpful in identifying or defining each of the "enemies" in a more helpful way. And each response or counterpoint is something that the church needs to see more of today. I don't believe this will speak to non-churched individuals. It may speak to those marginally churched individuals who still have a spiritual hunger. It will also work with those in the church who are sincere in working toward true reconciliation. I believe it is a helpful and thought-provoking book for the church.

I'm back from a long summer non-break. I started reading Radical Together by David Platt before the break started and it got lost in the summer activity. I was able to finish it this week and am fulfilling an obligation since I was given a copy of this book free of charge by the WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group in exchange for an honest review. It really isn't a difficult book to read. It was my misfortune to read it when the summer got busy. This is a companion to Radical by the same author. I have not read that book, yet. The sentence that really stuck out to me in the entire book was, "individually and together, we are to selflessly serve a self-centered God." It was a powerful reminder to me to that God does expect us to put God's interests before our own as individuals and as churches. Platt focuses on the corporate in this book more than the individual (thus Radical Together). And I felt he was challenging contemporary churches to pause and refle...

Honestly, I cannot mourn nor celebrate the end of Osama bin Laden's life. His life was marked with the suffering he caused and the chaos he brought into so many places and lives. At one time he accepted the hand of cooperation from the United States to conduct his war against infidels, committing the same acts of violence and destruction with our sanction and blessing because he was the enemy of our enemy. At that time his efforts were hailed by U.S. political leaders as inspiring and worthy of praise. But he was perpetrating the same deeds he later committed against U.S. citizens on U.S. soil. I cannot mourn for a man whose life was so centered on evil. But I don't mean evil in relation to human quality of good or evil. bin Laden was proclaimed as a hero 30 years ago by the United States when he led the Mujahideen. At that time he was fighting the good fight. But our opinion turned in the completely opposite direction when he began the jihad against the American intrusion into...

Awakening: A New Approach to Faith, Fasting, and Spiritual Freedom Stovall Weems What makes fasting easier? How can you make fasting more effective? Is it necessary? Stovall Weems provides a pattern for bringing people into the discipline of fasting without making it a burden. He also proposes that following a fast can be effective in producing spiritual awakening. And he stresses the necessity of it if you desire a fresher, more passionate relationship with God. Awakening has two parts. The first two thirds of the book is the foundational teaching regarding Weems’ approach to fasting. The last one thirds of the book sets out a pattern for implementing fasting into your life. Early in the book, Weems makes a decent argument for the need of believers to re-emphasize prayer and fasting in our lives. He also makes a passing mention of the role of giving. And he is right on. Believers in the current generations of the church have left the disciplines of prayer, fasting, and giving ...

It is making waves in the talk show circuits. It is on the best sellers list. Wal-Mart has a whole pile of the book. It is a smash hit. Heaven Is For Real tells the story of a little boy, Colton Burpo, who undergoes a serious surgical procedure. While under the anesthetic Colton experiences the wonders of heaven, the very throne room of God. The story is told from Colton's dad's perspective. Todd Burpo is a Wesleyan minister. Colton begins to divulge little pieces of what he experienced long after the surgery. The book tells of the little pieces of Colton's experiences that he shared over the course of a couple of years. This is a sweet book. The innocence Colton portrays makes you want to follow in his dad's footsteps, "Tell me more." It is a very quick read. I got through it in just a few hours. But I can't say that I liked the book. I'm probably too much of a cynic. Maybe I'm ingrained in my own beliefs too much. But as I read through the ...

Who goes to heaven? Who goes to hell? And who gets to choose? These are the questions that Rob Bell sets out to answer. To cut to the chase, Bell believes that God chooses everyone going to heaven. He argues that God is interested in a good story. And a god who allows people to live for approximately 72 years and then potentially spend eternity in hell does not make for a good story. For Bell, God allowing everyone to spend eternity with God makes a better story. And it does. It makes for a good story. And I agree with Bell on a good percentage of what he says early in the book. In general I believe that traditions and opinions of contemporary believers have strayed quite a bit from early beliefs. It is also interesting what biblical gymnastics are employed to argue for beliefs about the afterlife. Bell challenges the comfy armchair pictures and opinions about heaven and hell that we most commonly run into in today's churches. He draws out the many biblical approaches to heav...

I am reviewing Gabe Lyons' *The Next Christians* that I received free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group in exchange for this review. I wanted to read this book based on the title. What could the next generation of followers be like that would require this writing? I have watched the Postmodern flash and the emerging movement fade and wondered if this was the next passing claim. The first thing that I noticed is that it is not original in the emotion behind the writing. This is a restoration ideology - "let's get back to how Jesus did it". And Lyons gives a couple of passing references to the earlier moves in church history. But he does not give a full nod to what he sees as an original shift. Church history is marked by a large number of efforts to get back to the original message of the Gospel,the marks of those efforts in the lives of followers, and the impact those followers have on the world. The second thing that I noticed was the categories of chu...

I got a really, really cool Christmas present. Probably the greatest thing since sharp thingy's to slice bread. My beautiful and really smart wife got me a Kindle for Christmas. For those who don't spend most of their time connected to technological doo-hickeys, a Kindle is an electronic/digital book reader. You download books into the device and then read the book. I've gone through a few books so far. Most of them have been science fiction (because who else would think up a device to store and read thousands of books). But I just finished a book that really deserved a comment or two. Amazon offers some Kindle books for free. And as someone always looking for something for free, I download a few each week. This week I downloaded Imaginary Jesus by Matt Mikalatos. I typically do not read Christian fiction. I wasn't even sure this one was Christian. When I scanned the description, I wasn't sure what I was getting. But very early in the book I was finding it to be en...

Nah. It seems that this has laid dormant so long that the cobwebs were becoming sentient. Nothing wrong with my desire to express my opinion or feelings. I'm just lazy. And have a small addiction to Lord of the Rings Online. I have been having someone post on my comments the last few days. I'm not sure how they found me or what drew them to a semi-abandoned blog, but they commented on a post the needed follow-up. In the blog Dog Days I was lamenting on the media attention that Michael Vick was getting. He was a villain. A monster. The lowest of low of humanity. He should have been thrown into the dog ring he was planning to hold between a Rottweiler with a toothache and a rabid, hungry, zombie Chihuahua with a pork chops tied to every conceivable appendage of his body. Vick was seen as deserving of all of the bad things that could be thrown at him. Now he's a hero. OH! That reminds me of something else. The elections. Everyone was saying that this was a wake up call to th...