Congrats Detroit Bible Quizzing!!!

I heard some wonderful news on my answering machine today. Detroit Bible Quizzing won the World tournament this year. Not only that, they took first, second, and third! Amazing! Detroit has won that tournament two other times in its nearly 40 year history.

Bible Quizzing is probably second to none when it comes to learning scripture. I am sure that every person on those Detroit teams would have been able to quote this year's material (Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Philemon).

I was with the Detroit Bible Quiz program for 20 years. I am grateful to the many, many people who did life with me as a teen and as an adult. I offer deep thanks to the people who continue to make the Detroit Bible Quizzing program available to the young people of the Detroit metro area!

Long live Bible Quizzing!

Dobson Has the "Fruitcake" View

It has never ceased to amaze me (though no longer surprise me) how Dobson and Focus on the Family will twist, distort, and exaggerate. Listening to Dobson's comment yesterday, I had to choose between: Is Dobson that unashamedly devious or pathetically ignorant?

He said of Obama's 2006 "Call to Renewal" speech:

"He's trying to make the case that it is anti-democratic to believe or fight for moral principles in the Bible that are not supported by people of all faiths. Or presumably by those of no faith....What the senator is saying there in essence is that I can't seek to pass legislation for example that bans partial-birth abortion because there are people in the culture who don't see that as a moral issue. And if I can't get everyone to agree with me, it is undemocratic to try to pass legislation that I find offensive to the Scripture. Now that is a fruitcake interpretation of the Constitution. This is why we have elections, to support what we believe to be wise and moral. We don't have to go to the lowest common denominator of morality, which is what he is suggesting....What he is trying to say here is unless everybody agrees we have no right to fight for what we believe. I thank God that that is not what the Constitution says."

Sorry Dobson... go back and listen to the speech again (DID you listen to it?). Obama is not saying that he cannot pursue moral legislation unless it is ok with people of all faiths. He is saying that if his moral view is founded in scripture, he must find a way to argue his case to someone who does not accept the validity of scripture.

Here is what Obama said:

"Democracy demands that the religiously motivated translate their concerns into universal, rather than religion-specific, values. It requires that their proposals be subject to argument, and amenable to reason. I may be opposed to abortion for religious reasons, but if I seek to pass a law banning the practice, I cannot simply point to the teachings of my church or evoke God's will. I have to explain why abortion violates some principle that is accessible to people of all faiths, including those with no faith at all."

What is saddest of all is that millions of Christians will take what Dobson says as gospel ... without ever looking into it themselves.



HT: Chad B.

George Carlin

....He was one of the greats....
....thanks for the laughs and for being real...
....Rest in Peace....

GEORGE CARLIN
May 12, 1937 - June 22, 2008

SLEC Meeting and Hope

I just realized that the acronym for Salt Lake Emergent Cohort is SLEC. That sounds like a sound you make when something is stuck in your throat. This may be a case where it is wiser to not use the acronym.

The Cohort will be meeting this Wednesday, June 25th at High Point Coffee in West Jordan. It is a time to enjoy a good roast while wrestling through our common pursuit of God from our varying perspectives. If you are in the area, come join us! (Kay?)

I also wrote another article on Hope recently for our Salt Lake Emergent Cohort blog (I just don't think I can use SLEC). Go here to check it out.

My Son Can Swim!

It is a big sigh of relief now that Jake can swim. It happened in less than ten minutes. Jake had taken off his little arm floaties and decided to touch the bottom. Once he realized that all he had to do was push back up to get to the top; any fears he had went away.

He is very much like me in this regard. He never wanted to practice swimming for the most part. He is very slow to take on a new challenge. Once he does though, he does it with vigor. He was a regular fish after those first two minutes of swimming solo. It makes me wonder whether he has observed and taken on my cautious tendencies, or whether he is hard wired with them.

He was very pleased with himself and so was I. I loved that he has gained a new level of independence and that he is so proud of his accomplishment. Again, if God is a Father, then his heart responds similarly when we individually (or as a people) overcome obstacles.

He couldn't wait to show his mama, so we went back to the pool again later that evening. Mama was more prepared - she had the camera in tow.

This is a joke..... right??

A pretty scary video. I am not sure how many churches think like this, but I hope not many. It could be a reaction to this kind of "corporate church" attitude that is in part driving the Emergent, Missional, and New Monastic movements.


HT Out of UR

She Kisses My Hand

I believe God just graced me with a wonderful insight a few minutes ago. I was driving my daughter to her Girl Scout meeting the next subdivision over. A few of her fellow Girl Scouts were walking parallel to our van as we pulled up to our destination.

Kathryn has a routine as I leave for work each morning. She hugs and kisses me goodbye and then she kisses my hand, so I can press my palm to my cheek during the day when I need a kiss and then she has me kiss her hand for the same reason.

As we pulled into her troop leader's driveway she kissed my cheek and then reached for my hand. At that moment, she made eye contact with one of her scout friends. She froze and kept my hand down. When her friend passed us, she quickly pulled up my hand to kiss it, slammed her hand to my lips, and dove out of the van before anyone saw. :)

I believe God's presence settled over my van in that moment to tell me a story.

Besides her mother, there is no one whose love for Kathryn could compare to mine. I will never leave her, never abandon her, and I will always support her. There is nothing she could say or do that could cause me to turn away from her. For me, the sun rises and sets over her.

Yet in that moment, it was the opinion of her friends that mattered. Friends whose devotion will wax and wane. My daughter was afraid of what her love for me might look like to them. They might think her silly or childish. They might tease her. So she hid her love for me.

I was not at all hurt by this. I know this is an age and stage that she has to wrestle through. I actually thought it was cute. But I realized that I am the one she should cling to and, for HER sake, I want to be her security and stability in these formative years.

I want Kathryn to have friends. But as we all know, the fickleness of friends can reek havoc with one's emotions and esteem if that is where you turn for self-worth.

I realized that is what I had done this weekend (to build on my previous post). I became worried about what my friends think of the way I express love to my Heavenly Father. They might think me unorthodox, heretical, or unacceptable.

I know that part of my hurt was pride, but I also realize that I was not drawing my security from God. There is no one who loves me like my Father in Heaven. He will never leave me, never abandon me, and He will always support me. There is nothing I could say or do that could cause Him to turn away from me. For Him, the sun rises and sets over me.

As I want my daughter to seek out my love for her benefit; so God wants me to seek out His love for my benefit. When I draw my worth from Him who thinks the world of me, I will be able to offer grace and love to everyone without cost.

Isaiah 55

Invitation to the Thirsty

1 "Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.

2 Why spend money on what is not bread,
and your labor on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.

3 Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you. I will give you all of my unfailing love...

Repetitive Prayer

In some faith traditions, repetitive prayer is looked down upon. I think this is a shame. To be sure, familiarity can breed contempt; but I know the benefits of having useful words memorized and readily available.

A prayer by Mother Teresa lifted me yesterday. I heard from a friend some unsupportive remarks that another friend had made about me. Some points of my theology have been troublesome in my circles lately, but I hadn't realized it had gone to such a disparaging level.

I was hurt, to say the least. My wife cried as she and I talked about it. We believe we were called by God to come out here to Utah and help establish this church, but there have been times lately that we feel we don't belong. This is a heavy realization when it is understood that we moved out here to Utah from Michigan for this purpose.

Our thoughts began to turn as we talked. I wondered how much of my hurt was founded in pride. Do I need to be thought well of? Am I receiving my value more from men than from God? Does my service depend on my ego being stroked? Who am I serving?

With that change in thought, Mary Lee and I both remembered Mother Teresa's prayer that calls us to set aside our need to have our brothers and sisters in Christ tell us who we are - look to God for that assessment.

Deliver me, O Jesus,
From the desire of being loved,
From the desire of being extolled,
From the desire to being honored,
From the desire of being praised,
From the desire of being preferred,
From the desire of being consulted,
From the desire of being approved,
From the desire of being popular,
From the fear of being humiliated,
From the fear of being despised,
From the fear of suffering rebukes,
From the fear of being calumniated,
From the fear of being forgotten,
From the fear of being wronged,
From the fear of being ridiculed,
From the fear of being suspected.
Amen. ~ Mother Teresa

Inerrancy and Biblical Authority

My church did a survey of itself recently as part of a larger study that Willow Creek is conducting regarding the beliefs and practices of various evangelical churches. My church has about 1200 attendees and roughly 300 responded to the survey.

One point that I thought was interesting was that, according to the results, amongst people who consider themselves committed believers, only about half scored the Bible as having high “authority”. It made me think about the many ways that one could interpret that result.

First, I do not remember much from the survey on biblical authority, but I do remember a lot being said about inerrancy. To me, that shows a huge bias. To the writers of the survey, it seems that anyone who subscribes to biblical inerrancy gives the bible high authority; whereas anyone who does not must give it low authority. I do not believe in biblical inerrancy, so I must have gotten low marks on biblical authority.

However, I often find the opposite to be true. Many people I know who would give a resounding YES to biblical inerrancy often have very weak biblical justifications for the points of theology that they hold. Usually, they believe this or that based on a preacher they have heard or a book they have read or what their church teaches. I see this as giving high authority to people or institutions, but low authority to scripture.

I probably scored low on biblical authority, yet on pretty much everything I believe – orthodox or not – I have a biblical justification as to why I believe it. People may think I hold some wrong views, but those are views I hold while looking through the lens of scripture. In that light, I think I give the scriptures high authority in my life.

I think biblical authority should be measured by how an individual uses scripture to guide their theology, not by their position on inerrancy.

Next Stop.... President Obama!

Tonight he locked it! Click here for the video.

Go Obama! Go!!