| May 11th 2002 |
[May. 11th, 2006|10:42 pm] |
Dean Chandler
October 3rd 1947 - May 11th 2002 |
|
|
| Meetings, Petitions, New Classes and THANKS YOUs |
[May. 7th, 2006|01:47 am] |
Meetings and Petitions:
We've been exchanging emails with Dr. Enlow trying to arrange a time to get together. It appears that Dr. Enlow was very serious about wanting to hear our opinions and ideas. This is very encouraging. Now that we have the attention and ear of the #2 man at the school a whole new set of questions arise.
What do we say? Do we start making explicit suggestions? Do we make subtle suggestions? Do we present an entirely different system?
What do we bring up? Are we limited to the standards? Should be bring up the Sabbath issue? Do we mention the frustrations of the students with the administration over the Sabbath issue?
How do we say whatever we do say? Do we speak as proud students who have earned the right to be heard? Do we merely ask questions for clarification?
Its all too much for an introvert like me to consider. I over think too much.
Anyway, after talking with a few more individuals, we might still do the petition after all. Basically, since its the end of the year, a lot of momentum could very easily be lost once the school year ends. Therefore, when the faculty and administration start meeting over the summer, they could easily write-off our "letter" as the work of two frustrated students. We would collect signatures so that if the momentum begins to wan, then the appearance of the petition would give it new life. The petition would be more of a backup plan rather than our first strike.
Things to Consider:
1) If 3/4 of the school signed a petition which was opposed the standards, the school would be forced to ignore it. If the school made a change after receiving a petition, they would be letting the students run the school. The school would never and should never allow the students to run the school.
2) Its going to be very difficult to maintain momentum once the summer hits. Thus, the people opposing our position could easily write off a letter from just two students. However, if the letter had 200 signatures on it, it would obviously not merely be the work of two disgruntled students.
3)Being that we've already achieved the main objective of the letter (dialogue), passing out "the letter" to the student body and collecting signatures could EASILY be viewed as an offensive act. In our current position we're concerned students looking to improve the system. If we start looking for signatures, suddenly we might become zealots out to raise and arm and overthrow the system. The last thing we want to do is damage that which we've already achieved.
We've decided to wait until after our meeting with Enlow before making any sort of final decision. However, since there is less than two weeks of school left, we're running out of time to do a petition. So, a final decision will have to be made in the next few days.
Next Semester:
I finally registered for classes. And here they are....
Theology 1 - God, Christ, Spirit - Gentry
Principles of Teaching and Learning in the Classroom - Auld
Marriage and Family - Wagner
Principles of Bible Interpretation - Crutchfield
Learning Environment and Classroom Management
Field Ed. - Teaching in a Christian School (K-3rd)
Bible for Teachers - Cooper
Its a very full semester with several intense classes. Should be interesting.
Thank You
This section is mainly for my Xanga readers who are mostly CIU students
I just wanted to give all of you a big THANK YOU for all the encouragement in your comments on the last two posts. Gary and I have literally been working on this for about 3 months. We've received a great deal of support all along the way, but often times support has come in the form of "Yeah, but....." For every positive comment there would be five negative comments. I'm not complaining really. We certainly needed the feedback to both improve our position and to make sure we weren't swinging too far to the left. However, there was the side of me that was very concerned that very few people really got what we're doing.
Its been very encouraging to read your comments because it has affirmed the fact that others agree with what we're doing. You might necessarily agree with our exact position (that is fine...I don't think I agree with myself on some of the issues), but you're supportive of our overall cause (dialogue and reform).
Thank you! Your Comments really do mean a great deal to me |
|
|
| Meeting With the CIU Faculty - Resolution to "The Letter" |
[May. 2nd, 2006|01:16 am] |
Meeting 1
I got stood up for lunch by the guy that leads the youth part of Mission Columbia. Not a good start for the day.
Meeting 2
I'm not going to lie. Prior to this meeting I was getting incredibly nervous. In fact the last time I this nervous was when I spoke in front of 2,300 people to talk about a mission trip. I really didn't know what to expect.
After the meeting started they went through about 15 minutes worth of announcements. Then Dean Blewitt read from Ephesians 4 about how we need to be edifying with our words. This was our introduction...then we walked forward and Gary proceeded to read the entire letter. Upon completion, Dean Blewitt passed copies of the letter out to the entire faculty and opened the meeting up to discussion.
There was dead silence....then Blewitt's phone rings and he walked out of the room.....still dead silence....everyone was just kind of looking around the room waiting for someone to make the first move.
Finally Cliff Bedell stands up. If you don't know, Dr. Bedell is probably one of the oldest and most respected members of the faculty. I really didn't know what to expect, but I knew his input would probably predict where the rest of the conversation would go. So he stands up and begins to speak favorably of the letter and our arguments. He hardly approved of our efforts and was pleased that a pair of students took the initiative to write such a document.
Once he sat down the dialogue really opened up. Many professors were very pleased that we made a document which was in their language and well articulated. Others started to ask many clarifying questions to figure out exactly what we wanted. Once our intentions were clear they began to ask us about what changes we would suggest. Overall the meeting was very encouraging.
There was really only one comment which seemed to be negative towards our intentions. One professor implied that wish for students to be allowed to do drugs off campus, and to support the standards he appealed to his personal experience. Before we could respond to his comments, one of the professors came to the rescue and defended us. On several other occasions some professors started to ask challenging questions that Gary and I didn’t' have answers to, but then one of the professors would come to our rescue and articulate our thoughts better than we could. For that, I would like to thank Dr. Gentry, Dr. Lewis and Dr. Wenger.
Immediately after the meeting a man walked up to me...when I say he walked up to me, I mean he's a close talker. He shook my hand and asked where I was from. As soon as he Gary turned around to join the conversation the man says, "How about you guys re-write the hand book this summer?" At this point in time Gary and I begin to half-laugh because we're not sure what the guy is saying. He then continues "I'm half-joking, but I would like you to re-write the handbook over the summer. I'd love your input." He then pulls out a card from his wallet and begins to write his home number and cell phone number on the back. He then invites us over for dinner some time so that we can chat. I turn the card over and it reads "Ralph E. Enlow Jr. Ed. D. Provost." That was pretty cool.
A couple hours later we met up with Rick Swift, Dean of Students. We had a good suggestion about some possible steps we could take to make some positive change. Afterwards we went over to chat with Dean Blewitt. We once again had further discussion about what is the next step. He essentially said that the "letter" has served its purpose. At this point in time there is really no point in turning it into a petition. In fact, that would most likely be very counter productive at this point in time. Dean Blewitt also mentioned that Dr. Powell said that in 25 years of attending faculty meetings that this meeting had the most discussion.
At this point in time I have accomplished all that I set out to do with both the "letter" and my Pilgrim's Protest article. A dialogue has begun between the students, the faculty and the administration. The wheels of change appear to be in forward motion.
I would like to thank all of you that challenged me several months ago to do more than merely complain on my blog. Your rebuke did not fall on deaf ears, and without it, none of this would have possible. Through this experience, I can testify that the faculty and administration of CIU are open to hearing from students and others. If you have a complaint, you CAN do more than simply vent on the internet or make t-shirts. Articulate your concerns through appropriate means and they will listen (this paragraph make more sense if you've followed the CIU Xanga controversy). |
|
|
| Letters, Jobs and Invisible Children |
[Apr. 30th, 2006|03:27 am] |
The Letter
There have been some real exciting developments over the last few days. Gary showed the letter to Pat Blewitt (Academic Dean). He got so excited about it that he offered to let Gary read it at the next faculty meeting (May 1st). Gary, of course, took him upon on his offer. So, tomorrow, Gary and I are going to stand before the CIU faculty, present our letter and take questions. This is more than a little bit intimidating. I really have no idea what to expect.
Also, Dean Blewitt handed our letter off to Rick Swift (Dean of Students). So, yesterday Gary was pulled aside by Dean Swift to discuss the letter and the meeting briefly. I'm not really sure what exactly he thought of the letter, but from the little bit of the conversation I observed, he seemed to support what we were doing. In the last 3 days our little letter took a HUGE leap forward. Not only is our letter in the hands of the CIU staff, several of them really support what we're doing. Likewise, we have the dean of academics passing our letter out to the other deans and to the provost.
There is actually one more really cool update, but I don't want to mention the specifics until I know more details. I'm going to follow this post up with The Letter itself.
Summer Plans
Friday morning I received a phone call informing me that this summer I will be working at Hill Country Bible Church Pflugerville one more time. This is almost certainly the final time I will be interning at Pflugerville. I'm actually really nervous about this summer. The first summer I interned (summer 04) was some what intimidating. There was an backward situation where I almost didn't get the internship. So that kind of started things off on an odd foot. I was also fairly insecure about working at a church. I didn't feel worthy or capable. I was terrified I was going to mess everything up. Well, that didn't happen. And even for all my fears and insecurities, I'd been volunteering at the church for awhile at that point. I'd been working with the youth pastor in various ways for over a year. So I had a pretty good idea what to expect.
Last summer I didn't even think about it. I was well established in the youth ministry, and I knew exactly what to expect. I'd been working at the church for the past year. There was nothing really scary about it. If anything, I was far too comfortable in my position. The only real concern was over the fact that I was leaving at the end of the summer for CIU. So the big problem was the fact that I started to shut down early.
This summer is an entirely different situation. A month after I left the church, the youth pastor left as well. In the past 9 months they have not hired a replacement youth pastor. So the students and the leaders are have a strong thirst for something new or something old. They love it when I come and give the students a taste of the old, but they're desperate for a full-time leader. Returning to this sort of situation makes for a really weird situation for me. One the one hand it’s a very familiar place filled with familiar people. On the other hand it’s not the same as it was a year ago. I'm not the same as I was a year ago. The people aren't who they were a year ago. Trying to fit all strange new pieces together will be very interesting.
I'm also very nervous about this summer because I will be working under Bobby Pruitt (most likely). Bobby was my youth pastor growing up. If ever there was a person I put on pedestal, it was him. I'm slightly terrified of him and it would probably accurate to say that I'm desperate for his approval. Certain insecurities never seem to go away. You would think that age 24 I'd be past the stage of life where you're still trying to impress your youth pastor, apparently not. Hopefully, this summer will cure me of a few of my insecurities.
The Invisible Children
I'm really curious as to what kind of responses I'll get to this musing.
I'm all for a good cause. Far too many people are apathetic towards the things going on in the world. My own apathy bothers. Considering my financial blessings, my giving is pitiful. I adopted a child through Compassion in an effort to attempt to do more to help others. But really, it would be most accurate to say that I give money because I know it’s the right thing to do and I feel guilty that I don't do more. Supporting a child relieves that guilt. I would be lying if I told I was broken hearted over the suffering in the world. In fact, I'm probably more bothered by my lack of emotion than I am by the suffering itself. A good cause can get me excited about helping others. It moves me beyond duty to real connection.
Tonight was the Global Night Commute to support The Invisible Children. For those of you unaware, the invisible children are a group of children in Uganda who nightly travel to the city to sleep together in the town. Their villages are too dangerous to sleep in at night because anti-government religious revolutionaries kidnap the children and force them to fight in their arm. The Global Night Commute was an attempt to raise awareness of the problem by having 1,000s of people across the nation spend the night at their local state house writing letters to senators and to the president. As of this moment they are just short of 60,000 people signed up. In an attempt to support a good cause, I drove down to the capital building and signed the registration pad. After saying "hello" to a few friends I left. I'm really not sure how me sitting at the capitol building bored will help anyone. ...anyway, that isn't what this is all about.
Ever since I first saw The Invisible Children video I've had a very odd feeling about the entire movement. Obviously I have no desire for children to be kidnapped and forced to fight for an evil sadistic human being. However, I've never really understood the purpose, intentions or goals of the invisible children movement. According to their website, this is their mission.
Invisible Children, Inc. is dedicated to providing financial resources to invisible children by documenting their true, untold stories in a creative and relevant way, resulting in positive change.
Alright...their objective is to raise financial resources for the invisible children. This sounds very noble. As someone with financial resources I can certainly support that. However, things get a little bit messier when you go beyond that. As I surf through their website, I don't really understand most of what I'm seeing. When I clicked on the movement page I was a little bit baffled by what I saw. A little window popped up and told me about their Suburban Safari: National Tour. Apparently they sent 7 "vans" and 30 CRAZY college students out to spread the word. Along the way they hosted concerts and set up merch booths. The goal of the Global Night Commute was apparently to raise awareness and to facilitate change in "policies of the United States government in regard to the situation." It all sounds very noble, but we're starting to get pretty far away from a simple mission to provide financial resources for the invisible children. Now we're starting to get involved in foreign policy.
The Invisible Children foundation is certain led by passionate people that want to make a difference. They have the passion I wish to have. If I had their passion, I would be a far greater person. My problem is that I'm not certain they really have a good answer. There is injustice all over the globe. I certainly don't deny that the struggle in Uganda is awful, but there are awful struggles in many countries. Children suffer in most countries of the world. I'm not certain that it’s the United States' job or responsibility to play the global police. As much we often like to think that "terrorists" are just religious nuts or one-dimensional villains like Cobra Commander in G.I. Joe, they're normally actually very complex individuals with very motives. Much of the world hates the United States because we feel the need to get involved in everyone else’s business.
I certainly haven't done the research of the people who started the Invisible Children foundation, so I don't really know what the current U.S. policy is... after reading their website; I'm not really sure exactly what they want. Instead of finding clear objectives on their website, I instead found virtual propaganda "Northern Uganda called the worst humanitarian crisis in the world because of lack of attention." As I have repeated many times, I'm all for a good cause and I certain wish to do my part to ease the suffering of the children in Uganda. However, rock concerts, bracelets, letters to the president and parties at the capital building are starting to get pretty detached from the mission of raising funds for the invisible children. I don't question anyone’s motives or intentions, but it just feels like things have gotten a little out of hand and the focus seems slightly off.
DISCLAIMER: This is all coming from someone who drove down to the capital building to make sure his name was registered. I want to do my part to help. At this moment I don't have any suggestions for how they can do their job better. So I'll support what they are doing. My purpose is really just to stir up thoughts and discussion...and really it’s for to attempt to articulate what I've been feeling the past couple of weeks. |
|
|
| The Da Vinci Code |
[Apr. 24th, 2006|03:07 am] |
| [ | music |
| | Hillsong United - Free | ] |
The Da Vinci Code
Alright...it happened...I gave in and read The Da Vinci Code.
If you don't know much about my reading life, this is probably one of only ten real novels I've read in my entire life. When I was in elementary school I remember reading children's versions of classic novels, but somewhere around middle school I stopped reading entirely for about 8 years. Honestly, I don't think I read a single book in high school, save possibly Of Mice and Men and parts of The Martian Chronicles. I barely even read my textbooks when I was at community college. Over the last three or so years, however, I've been really pushing myself to make reading a regular habit. Since I'm a somewhat of a productivity-driven individual, I tend to only read books that I can see a direct benefit to reading. For this reason (and the fact that I'm a slow reader, I was actually certified with a reading disability in grade school) I don't tend to read many novels at all. All this is really just to say that I really have little exposure to good literature and have no really perspective to give a meaningful literary review of ANY book.
When I first started to hear the buzz about The Da Vinci Code, back in 2003 or 04, I didn't really pay much attention. We live in a culture that likes to use shock and controversy as a marketing technique. T.V. shows like South Park like to use "controversial" crude, tasteless humor and the History Channel and U.S. News & World Report like to run "controversial" stories about Jesus and Christianity. So I don't generally like to get worked up over controversial fads.
Beyond that, from the beginning the entire thing seemed a bit silly to me. Anyone with any knowledge of how we got the Bible and history can see straight through the holes in Dan Brown's view of Christian history. Beyond that, it’s just a novel. Novels are supposed to tell larger than life compelling stories. That is why we read them. So it was a little bit beyond me as to why the Christian community would get so worked up for this particular fiction story.
The problem with The Da Vinci Code is that this little fad didn't go away. It kept selling more and more copies. Somewhere along the way, the Christian community started to take notice and get a bit worried. With the new Ron Howard-Tom Hanks film on the verge of coming out, the Christian community is getting to ready for war.
For me, I first started to notice this resurgence back in February. In my evangelism class our professor informed us that Josh McDowell was writing a book in response to The Da Vinci Code. This seemed a bit odd to me, but I didn't think anything of it. Then, over Spring Break I found out that my youth group back in Texas had done an entire series on The Da Vinci Code. The following week, one of the school newspapers ran an article discussing the neo-paganism found throughout the book. A few weeks later, on a prayer day, there was an entire chapel dedicated to discussing the controversy. In response, one of my friends ran out and read the book that night. She informed me that I should do the same. Ironically, I responded with something like, "I'll take that into consideration, but it’s not going to happen" (within 5 days I had read the book).
The fact that our school would have a chapel message dedicated to the book got me seriously thinking about how absurd the whole situation is. But it didn't end there. I went home for Easter weekend to discover that my church in Texas is going to run an entire series on The Da Vinci Code. Not only that but the church I grew up in (which now has roughly 4000 in weekly attendance) STARTED a series on the book on EASTER SUNDAY. Instead of a talk on the resurrection of Christ, they did a talk on this book (I assume to attempt to take advantage of the large number of visitors). Later I learned that a number of other churches ALSO chose to do sermons on the book on Easter Sunday.
The final straw came the Monday before I was suppose to fly back to Columbia. While showering I had my radio turned to the local Christian radio station. During a little news segment they started to discuss the film and the announcer flat out called it "anti-Christian." After I heard those words the thoughts kept bouncing around in my head, "it’s just a fictional book." I absolutely could not figure out why the Christian community would be freaking out over a simple novel and labeling it "anti-Christian." I had to find out what the controversy was all about.
Having now read the book, I must admit, I really liked it. Pretty much as soon as I started reading it I was hooked. In fact, I literally stayed up all night reading this book. I could not put it down. Without having much to compare it to its tough to say what it was about this book that drew me but boy did this book draw me in. As a stated before, I'm a slow reader. So the fact that I read a 489 page book within a 24 hour period of time is really impressive.
Part of the appeal for me is that I love grandiose conspiracy stories. The bigger the conspiracy the better. Back in high school, I went nutty for the movie Conspiracy Theory. Likewise, the global, government, alien cover-up stories of The X-Files were always my favorites. Likewise, I also enjoy history, the Christian faith and the history of how we got the Bible. The Da Vinci Code has all that stuff packed in there. It was only naturally that I would enjoy this novel.
With all that said, I am absolutely baffled by the controversy that has surrounded this novel. Are people really taking this junk seriously? Sure it made for a compelling story that drew me in, but how could any intelligent person take this stuff seriously? Did they start checking the Declaration of Independence for a treasure map after watching National Treasure? It would make just as much sense in my mind. I understand that Dan Brown's research was very extensive, but he also just made up tons of junk. More importantly, even if his scholarship was reliable, it’s all dependent on the story, which isn't true. If the details of the story aren't real then the reliability of the controversy can be thrown out the window. It just has nothing to stand on.
On the flip side, it’s bizarre to me that the Christian community would go absolutely nuts over a mere novel. Sure the ideas found within the fictional novel are against The Church, but it’s still just a novel. Books are supposed to take place in alternative worlds which resemble our world. Many Christians may be against Harry Potter, but I've never heard some call it "anti-Christian." If Christians are going to freak out over popular novels that take place in fantasy worlds which oppose the Christian worldview, we might as well call Harry Potter "anti-Christian" because it contains magic. Now I do understand that because of Dan Brown's research this particular novel does come MUCH closer to reality than Harry Potter or Star Wars, but the principle still applies. The Da Vinci Code doesn't contain outright blasphemous material like "The Last Temptation of Christ." It’s really difficult for me to take the charge that this book is "anti-Christian" seriously. Beyond a quote from a Roman Catholic character, which called Christian morality a product of the 3rd century (p. 448), and a quote from the main character, which called all religious faiths unreasonable (p. 370), I have really hard time calling this book "anti-Christian." If this book is anti-Christian, then every book or movie whose plot-line revolves around a world not founded on the Christian worldview is "anti-Christian." The Da Vinci Code just clearly explains how it sets itself apart from the Christian reality.
I think the reason that the Christian community is responding so strongly to The Da Vinci Code is because it’s something we can be united on. Christians have been fighting certain in-house debates for over 1,500 years. For the past 500 years Christians have been split down the middle forming into Protestants and Roman Catholics (of course, there are all so the Orthodox Churches as well). As Christians, there are only a handful of things we all agree on. With the popularity of The Da Vinci Code, we have one more thing we can agree...this book is NUTS! Whether you're a free will Baptist, a reformed Presbyterian or a Roman Catholic priest, we can all agree that Dan Brown's view of Christian history doesn't correspond with reality or historical records. Therefore, we as Christians can very easily unite in reaction to this book. The Da Vinci Code is an easy target for a people who aren't terribly prone to target anyone thing together.
I simply can't take all the hype and controversy seriously. I heard one person claim that the movie will spark a cultural movement from post-modernism to a period of neo-paganism. Perhaps I'm just a bit naive about how gullible people are, but it is simply beyond me that a work of fiction could have any significant cultural impact. We aren't talking about a deeply philosophical novel or social commentary. We're talking about a by the numbers conspiracy-thriller filled with bogus history and outrageous theories. Are people really buying into this stuff? Are Christians going freaking out over nothing? Is the Christian response giving too much credibility to a mere fictional novel? I have no idea...but the whole thing sure is fascinating.
Word Count: 1,656 |
|
|
| Uncertain Surprises from Atlanta |
[Apr. 21st, 2006|12:47 am] |
| [ | music |
| | Hillsong United - Free | ] |
Surprise Surprise:
As many of you know for the extended weekend I flew back home to surprise my girlfiriend. To set this deal up, we had Jennifer's aunt call Jenn and tell her that she needed to pick her up from the airport to surprise Jenn's mom. So Jenn would believe she was going to pick her aunt up from the airport and then I would be there instead. It was going to be beautiful. Her aunt was going to call her right before I went down the elevator. That her aunt would get to be on the phone during the magic moment of clarity where Jenn realized I was in town........didn't happen. The Jennifer was 50 minutes late. So late that her aunt had to go to a church service. So when Jenn pulled up to the airport curb I snuck up behind her car....when she noticed I was there she freaked out. It was amazing!!!
A Night in the Atlanta Airport:
I was suppose to fly back to Columbia monday night. That didn't happen. Because of how absurdly busy the Atlanta airport is, my flight from Austin was delayed 20 minutes (because it was waiting for a flight from Atlanta). Then when we got to Atlanta in the sky we had to fly in circles around Atlanta for 20 minutes before landing because they had no open landing strips.. Then we sat on the ground for 20 minutes waiting for a gate to open. By the time I got off the plane, my second flight had left. This meant I was stuck in Atlanta over night. They gave me two food vouchers and a $46 hotel voucher. However, it was uncertain as to whether this meant I got $46 off the hotel price or whether the hotel price was $46. When I called the hotel, teh person seemed terribly confused and suggest I just get a ride to the hotel to settle. I happened to think that was a moronic idea because it could very easily end up with me getting charged $150 for a hotel room....not gonna happen.
Instead I decided to sleep in the lobby. ...more accurately, I decided to stay up all night reading in the lobby. I considered sleeping briefly. However, very soon afterwards the homeless started to crowd into the lobby. Several of them in fact started walking around the room asking for money. I very quickly came to realize it would be very bad idea fall asleep and leave my laptop and wallet unguarded. So I cuddled up on a bench and read through almost all of "The Da Vinci Code." Around 5 in the morning a security guard went around and cleared out all the homless....and then came the rush of people. By 6:30 a.m. the airport was packed full of people. The secuirty lines were easily some of the longest I have ever seen (though they moved quickly). ...anyway, things got better and I made it back to CIU just in time for Sabbath Chapel Part I.
Uncertain:
I'm still not really sure whats going to happen this summer. I have officially applied to intern at the church I used to work at, but I won't find out if I get the position until next week. If I don't get the internship, I'm really not certain what I'm going to do. I'll almost definately stay in Columbia for the two week version of Principles of Teaching. However, once I return to Austin I have no idea what I'll do. I really dont have time to seek alternative employment, so it could be a very interesting summer. |
|
|
| Lost in the Atlana Airport |
[Apr. 18th, 2006|12:16 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  aggravated | ] |
| [ | music |
| | The Stillpoint Band - Amazed by You | ] |
Trapped in Atlanta
Airports....sigh.
Because the Atlanta airport is wildly irresponsible in the way they book flights, I missed a connecting flight. So, I'm writing this entry from the Atlanta airport...where I will be staying tonight. I'm currently not very happy with Delta, the Atlanta Airport, the baggage claim office or the Atlanta Sheraton Gateway hotel. Uggghhh |
|
|
| New Baby Boy |
[Apr. 15th, 2006|10:08 pm] |
Quick Updates
1. I'm an uncle AGAIN!!! My sister-in-law gave birth to a baby boy...but they have no name yet. YAY!!!
2. Also, for Easter weekend I came back to Austin to surprise Jenn. It worked! This trip is too short. |
|
|
| Babys, Conferences and Baby Pictures |
[Apr. 10th, 2006|02:20 pm] |
| [ | music |
| | Audio Adrenaline | ] |
Expecting
I'm not certain if I'm actually allowed to say this or not....but my sister is having another baby. She's due in December (I believe). And as I've mentioned before, my sister-in-law is also expecting. So by the end of the year I will have five nieces and nephews. Fun times!
BABY PICTURE!
Columbia Conference
So this past week was Columbia Conference. For those of you who don't know, Columbia Conference is a essentially a youth retreat held on the CIU campus. Something like 150 students from across the nation come to the school and the various majors put on a big conference for them.
In typical fashion, I was very skeptical of everything at first. Since I had absolutely nothing to do with the whole process, I really had no idea what to expect. All I really knew was that I was told by my RA that I wasn't allowed to leave campus and that I was suppose to stay in my room as much as possible....I did not like this idea much at all.
Anyway, it turned out to be a really neat deal. The speaker was pretty good....he actually broke down and cried during all four sessions. For the sessions the Comm majors really added lots of cool touches. They had a four person video crew going. It was all very impressive.
Of course, since we don't have cabins on campus, I ended up having two Methodists from out of state staying in my room. That was very ....interesting. All day saturday afternoon they kept hiding things in my room. Then 15 minutes someone would come in my room and start going through my stuff looking for the hiden item. It was as if they had no clue that I miht not want them going through my underwear drawer...they seemed a bit clueless to the idea of boundries and personal space. It was very peculiar. Anyway, we had lots of fun. Late Saturday night we did a devotional on Ecclesiastes 4:11. Then we applied that passage to our own lives.
Also, I got to spend a good amount of time with four of the girls from the Columbia Crossroads Youth Group. We talked for like 3 hours saturday night. Good times. |
|
|
| Snakes on a Plane!!!!! |
[Mar. 30th, 2006|11:08 pm] |
Its been an eventful couple of weeks. Lets recap....
28 minute of teaching in the Hill Country Bible Church Pflugerville Junior High
13 days with Jenn
13 books purchased
5 lunch appointments
3 books read
2 1200 mile road trips
1 Spring Break
1 article published in school paper
1 homework assignment I forgot to do
1 domain name registered
1 website in the works
1 trip to the Hooka-Lounge
0 puffs of the Hooka (stupid standards )
The Pilgrim's Protest Article:
Thus far I've gotten some positive feedback about my article. Thats good. Apperently during Wisdome Literature today they spent the first 45 minutes of class discussing standards. In the middle of the discussion one girl said, "The guy that wrote the article just doesn't get the purpose of standards." In response I would say, "EXACTLY!" She is correct I don't get the purpose of standards, at least not in their current form...or the way they were 20 years ago.
Anyway, Gary and I are in the process of finalizing a draft of a letter we're planning on passing on to the administration. I saw Gary and I but really he's doing all the work...hahaha. Apperently he's trying to quote Calvin's Institutues in it a lot. That should be interesting.
My point in mentioning it is to try and get support of others. If you're interested in taking part in what Gary and I are doing, please leave a comment. Basically we'd like to draft a letter and try and get as many serious signatures on it as is possible. We're not interested in getting signaters from slackers who just don't like rules. We're looking for individuals who share our concerns regarding the standards. IF YOU'RE INTERESTED COMMENT.
Teaching at Pflugerville:
So this past sunday I taught at my old church in Texas. Getting back and teaching there solidified my desire to return this summer and intern again. Whenever I'm back in the junior high at P-Ville its like I jump right back into my life 9 months ago. It just feels right. So I do believe I will be interning one final time.
Teaching at Pflugerville has such a different feel to it. The simple fact that there is a stage makes things feel much more professional...and the simple fact that there is a good group of students is also more encouraging.
Anyway, I recorded the talk (as I recall all of my talks). You can download it here.
Website:
I'm working on putting up a webpage. As of yet I don't have a specific purpose in mind, but I've had this idea in my head for a website for a long time. So for right now I imagine I'll just put up my weekly talks and my more serious blog entries. However, long term I'll would like to use it for more than warehousing. |
|
|
| Art, Culture and Christian Music |
[Mar. 14th, 2006|03:25 am] |
| [ | music |
| | Jimmy Eat Word - Get It Faster | ] |
I'm just kind of thinking through some stuff in the written form. It might be wrong...I might be crazy...and there is an obvious bias and one sided nature to my evaluation of music and culture (as it reflects only that which I'm familiar with). Also, if you've known me long, you've probably discussed most of these topics with me before. Last, there are certainly exceptions to most of what I say.
Anyway, perhaps this will open up some discussion....if you don't know; I post all my entries on four different sites. I wish there was some way to get all my readers/commenters to interact on sight. Unfortunately, most of my read/commenters simply use one of the 4 sights I post on. Anyway...
Music, Culture and Christian Music
You can learn a great deal about a culture from its art. The Renaissance is often remembered for its many artistic triumphs. With this era also came the idea of he "Renaissance man" who could do almost everything and do it well (Da Vinci often pointed out as the epitome). Thus, from that era we also had a shift towards man's ability to achieve. With this, the art often gave a romanticized view of humanity. A simple look at the art could tell you a great deal about their view of humanity.
With the massive revolutions in recording that have taken place over the past 100 years, its probably safe to say that music has became the most popular, wide spread and representative form of art in our culture. Thus, looking at the popular music of the 60s (70s) can give you great insight into that particular period of time. The anti-war anthems were a direct result of the Vietnam War. Likewise, the rise of psychedelic rock indicated a shift in the artist’s philosophy and a rise in drug use (haha).
In the early 90s, a new "alternative" form of rock hit the mainstream. It was distant, angry and pessimistic. Its counter-cultural nature made its popularity inherently self-destructive. This was never more apparent than the suicide (or MURDER) of Kurt Cobain. The poster child of a movement died at the height of success. Likewise, the generation that grew along with this music, Generation X, has been labeled pessimistic, angst-ridden and alienated. A frustrated generation produced music full of frustration.
So what does the music of our Christian sub-culture tell us about modern Christinianity?
Many of the attacks thrown against Christian music are baseless or inaccurate at best. Christian music doesn't produce rip-off artists any more than secular music does. It appears as though Christian music is just trying to copy the secular market simply because some people are just looking for Christian alternatives and therefore people put together these charts that exaggerate the similarities between artists. Secular artists rip each other off all the time too. The nature of many Christian music listeners just highlights the rip-offs. This really isn't a problem restricted to Christian music.
However, I believe there is a great deal we can learn about modern Christianity (specifically the evangelical community) from the music/art it is putting out. Certainly, there are Christian artists who are putting out wonderful music and art. However, it seems most of these artists fall outside the realm of mainstream evangelicalism. So what do we find in modern Christian music? A compartmentalized, shallow, simplified, safe, "family friendly," depiction of Christianity.
"Compartmentalized Christianity" has become one of those new clichés and buzzwords, but "Christian music" is a perfect example of it. How many songs on Christian radio really deal with the issues of life? Sure you'll hear over and over again that we're sinners needing God's grace. However, songs like this come as merely Bible-lesson songs. There isn't any humanity in it. Likewise, I remember back in like 1999 when roughly 3 songs came out all entitled "God Shaped Hole." Then you had "What Would Jesus Do" the song.
Of course, these seems like an attack on Christian music, its really an attack on Christian culture. We seem happy to allow our faith to just turn into little Bible lessons. As I've stated before, I think the Supremacy of Christ is most likely my favorite passage of scripture. Why? Because it makes it clear that Christ is supreme over everything. That means Christ is supreme over EVERYTHING in our lives.
A couple years ago I was talking to a man at church. He said something to the affect of "I'm not sure why we don't just drop an atomic bomb on the Middle East." He was most likely slightly exaggerating, but he really did mean what he was saying. Somehow I don't think the message of the cross worked its way into his view of American foreign policy. That’s just one example of how its so easy to compartmentalize our lives. I'd go into more detail but this entry is already absurdly long...and I've only just begun talking about what I meant to talk about.
Of course, Christianity wants to be so compartmentalized that it felt the need to create its own genre of music...its on trinket stores...its own cute little sub-culture. Then we frown upon people that step outside of our bubble. Its really kind of weird.
Perhaps if we as Christians moved beyond at compartmentalized view of Christianity our art would begin to reflect a more rich view of life. The Christian life isn't just about praise songs, Bible lessons and declarations of good of a Christian we are. A simple read through the gospels exposes a very real Jesus who interacted the gritty details of life. Perhaps if we started to break down these walls Christianity would begin to have a much more rich view of life.
Christian music is somewhat notorious for its shallow lyrics. They're often shallow in the artistic and the theological sense. As stated before, too many songs are merely Bible lessons in song form. In many ways I'm a fan of modern worship, but it is a bit disturbing that there are really only a few deep, theological song writers out there. The remainder are simply busy rephrasing the same simple sentiments. There isn't anything inherently wrong with this (I don't think), but it indicates a much deeper problem.
We as Christians are far too accepting of far too little. Our apologetics involve Josh McDowell making arguments that full of wholes, making bold claims and attacking straw man arguments. He isn't putting evidence that demands a verdict. He's putting out evidence that's just enough for satisfy simple Christians. Likewise, books like Purpose Driven Life, which AT BEST teach basic principles of Christianity (some would say it doesn't even do that), are selling millions and millions of copies. People are eating up the basics. They love the watered down stuff, but rarely do things go beyond that. At a Bible College I've heard someone say that the test to tell how much a theologian you are is to look at how many C.S. Lewis and John Piper books you have. Sorry but C.S. Lewis wasn't a theologian and John Piper doesn't write theology books. If C.S. Lewis has become our theology then we have serious problems (and we obviously do).
The problem with shallow Christian music comes from a shallow Christian faith. In general people are demanding more than the basics, so why would they want more in their music or worship songs.
Finally, Christian music provides a safe, "family friendly" view of Christianity. Christian music is greatly example of the moralism that we find in Christian culture. Back in the late 90s the songwriter for Vigilantes of Love wrote a love song to his wife. Well, it got a bit graphic, Song of Solomon-style. Next thing you know the record gets pulled from Family Christian Stores. I haven't read the lyrics to the song, but I can't for second imagine they're more graphic or intimate than the contents of the Bible. Its pretty tough to beat the graphic nature of Ezekiel 16. Yet it was shunned by the stores. Likewise, Derek Webb ran into some problems when his song "Wedding Dress" used the word "whore" in very biblical way. Both of these artists were pushed out of the mainstream by controversial songwriting (of course Derek Webb has found a following among disenfranchised college students).
The trend in Christian music is merely a reflection of Christian culture. Moralism has taken over. Well, at least it did take over. Somewhere in the fundamentalist movement all sorts of weird ideas got mixed into Christianity. All of sudden dancing and drinking became taboo. This is actually one area where the church seems to be making some progress (of course, it still remains in the BIBLE COLLEGES). Still, it pops its head up in different forms.
In typical fashion, as a knee-jerk reaction to our hyper-sexual culture, Christian culture has become uber-weird about it. Its as if we have to completely shelter our kids from knowledge about sex. A couple years back I made a joke about how inappropriate it would be if there was a movie made out of the Song of Solomon to a group of teenagers at church. Then a fellow leader called me out and told me that was why I would never make for a good youth leader. The idea was that I should mention sex. Recently it occurred to me that I believed that most all jokes about sex in movies were wrong. Whenever watching a movie with other people where sex was mentioned I felt like I was doing something wrong. Certainly, many jokes in our media about sex ARE bad. The sort of sexuality found in teen-sex comedies is obviously bad. However, I'm really not sure what is wrong with making simple non-crude jokes about a married couple’s sexuality. That would seem to be a very healthy thing to do. Something about the way I was raised made me feel all references to sex were bad.
I don't think the problem of our society is simply that its hyper-sexual. If you read your Bible you will find a whole lot of sex. The problem seems to be that our society is extensively promoting a perverted view of sex. Its this perverted view of sex that we should be avoiding. Further, as Christians instead of running away from even mention of the word sex, perhaps we should be more active in promoting a biblical view of sex. One of the best ways to do this would be to allow the singer of V.O.L. to write a song about his love for his wife. In fact, instead of compartmentalizing Christianity, perhaps we need more Christian songwriters writing about the sexuality. God felt it was so important that he dedicated a book of the Bible to it. We need Christian art that transcends what we consider "family-friendly." In fact our label "family friendly" is more accurately called "pharisaical legalism."
In conclusion, as we consider the faults of mainstream Christian music, we must realize that most of these faults indicate a much deep problem which plagues all of mainstream Christianity. The problem isn't in the music, the problem is in us. We need to working to have a deeper, richer faith. Perhaps then our art will reflect a richer spirituality.
Epilogue:
I had no intention of this turning into my magnum-opus on Christian music and culture. I actually only intended to express a few simple thoughts about how Christian music reflects Christian culture. Here it is _____ words later. I sure can be long winded. If you've gotten this far, thank you for reading. |
|
|
| ...all in a few days |
[Mar. 12th, 2006|02:03 am] |
| [ | music |
| | Weezer - Hash Pipe | ] |
Opportunity? Not so much....
The big opportunity I was talking about a few days ago didn't work out. Basically there was a chance I might be able to teach at a youth retreat in Seatle. The person that was suppose to speak dropped out. So they were looking for a new speaker. I sent a talk to the youth minister and things were looking good. However, someone else who she'd talk'd to earlier became availible. Its disappointing things didn't work out, but the fact that I was considered leaves me hopeful for future opportunities.
An Article for Protest....
On a different note, I wrote an article for The Pilgrim's Protest (the other school periodical) about the standards. The basic idea of the article was that if we believe there are issues and contradictions within the system, we should communicate this to the faculty, not just complain about it. My basic conclusion was that as a student body we need to work together to articulate our thoughts to the CIU faculty. Along those lines, Gary and I have begun outlining a letter to write to the faculty about the standards. We're attempting to avoid anything overly confrontational, accusatory or inflamatory. Instead, we're seeking to present reasonable and biblical arguments for why we believe there are problems inherent in a system based off of standards. My hope is that it will open some form of dialogue between us and the faculty/deans.
An Article for the FUTURE!!! ...
On the topic of writing, the other night I wrote and submitted and article to InterVarsities website. I have no idea what will come of it. I just know that I enjoy writing and communicating ideas. If its something I would like to do quasi-professionaly at some point, I need to start working on getting involved in serious writing that others will read. So, hopefully something good will come of it. Its my hope to just keep writing and submitting articles until one gets accepted.
Teaching Twice, a Legacy and a Nifty Packet...
Tomorrow I'm teaching twice. That should be interesting. In the morning I'm doing a stand alone lesson in sunday school on spiritual gifts. Though I'm not really a huge fan, we're going to give out a spiritual gifts test. I'm going to strongly preface it by stating "THIS IS NOT ABSOLUTE. It is just to get your mind thinking." I put together a neat little packet. It describes each of the spiritual gifts and gives their scripture refernces. Its nice. ...of course, I don't know how I"m going to teach tomorrow. Its going to be much more a dialogue rather than a lecture. I don't know how good I'll do at that, especially with a topic like Spiritual Gifts. ...it kind of intimidates me. Then tomorrow night I will be starting "Before You Say 'I Do.'" In doing so I shall be continuing a legacy. How exciting?
A Losing Journey...
Friday night we had a city-wide scavenger hunt with the youth group. My team came in absolute last place. Everything was completely stacked against my team...okay not everything (one team had a team member get sick...AND THEY STILL BEAT US!!!). Our problem was that I had no idea where anything was because I'm new to Columbia. Nor do I really know my way around town. So I had to rely on the students directions....which didn't work so well. We got lost a whole bunch of times. Hopefully I will be able to reclaim my honor some how.
A Week From Austin...
I'll be back in Austin in like a weeks. Thats weird to think about.
An Unknown Summer...
I've been trying to figure out my summer plans (still am actually). I want to intern a P-ville again, but its tough to know what that will look like. Then I wasn't sure when I'd be back in Austin because of the possible retreat in Seatle. Now Bobby Pruitt is starting to respond to my emails about interning and stuff. So, I might actually know what I'm doing soon. I really hope things work out nicely and I get a challenging and DIFFERENT type of internship this summer.
A Conclusion...
Those are a few snippets from my thoughts and actions from the last few days. How exciting. |
|
|
| Good Apologetics....BAD Apologetics |
[Mar. 9th, 2006|12:07 am] |
| [ | music |
| | Third Day - Deserve | ] |
This was originally a BLOG comment on someone elses page, but I got so worked up that I decided I wanted it to be its own special post.
The books I'm reading for apologetics class all seem to be pretty good. They're actual college level apologetics books (I've been having trouble reading the current book). Typically they don't simplify the issues or make strawman arguments . However, the authors have admitted the strengths and weakness of both their side and the non-Christian side. Overall I've been pleased.
....however, for evangelism class we're reading a Josh McDowell book on how to reach "our kids" using a "relational apologetic." Its awful. According to Josh McDowell 81% of "our youth" believe that all truth is relative to the individual. This is very interesting since I have never once met a single person that flat out claims "all truth is relative." Shifts towards tolerance and subjectivism....mmmmm sure. But flat out claiming 81% of youth are full blown relativists...no way. The only place these full blown relativists seem to exist is in popular Christian apologetics books.
McDowell then goes on to claim, "I've tked to thousands of Christian kids who say that adultery is wrong but premaritial sex is okay." Call me Mr. Skeptical but I'm havingtrouble believing that Josh McDowell personally talked with THOUSANDS OF CHRISTIAN KIDS about adultery and premaritial sex. Of course, of the THOUSANDS OF CHRISTIAN KIDS at least some of them had to believe premaritial sex was wrong and others would have had to believe that adultery wasn't wrong. So now we're up to Josh McDowell talking to THOUSANDS UPON THOUSANDS OF CHRISTIAN KIDS.
Finally, for some bizzare reason, Josh McDowell decided to illustrate this "relational apologetic" using stories. FABRICATED STORIES! At the part of the book I"m reading right now, its probably about 50% MADE UP STORIES. I'm really not sure what I'm suppose to do with it. These stories sound like they're straight out of a bad Christian movie. The character all fit into place perfectly. You have the stereotypical secularizing professor. You have the college student led astray by the secularizing professor. You have the worried and distant parents who wish to renew their relationship with the daughter. And using McDowell's "relational apologetic" the parents are able to renew their relationship with the daughter, bring her to tears as she realizes just how much God loves her, destroy the secularizing professors arguments, clear the daugher of her postmodern subjectivism AND bring the daughter to tears as she realizes that shes been treating the bible as a set of rules and trusting herself instead of God. Ugghhhh! Here are some actual dialogue from one of McDowell's stories,
"I mean, I can see that the Bible's really reliable." She paused. "But it almost sounds like you're saying that the Bible is true....for everyone."
"Yeah," Duane said, "we are saying that."
"Well, yeah," Lauren replied, "It just sounds so exclusive. Because if its true everyone, then you're pretty much saying that Jesus is the only way for the whole world...."
Now I'm sure that at some point in the history of the 6.5 billion people on the planet, a conversation like this has occured. However, lets be real, its completely contrived. Its a caricature of a real situation. Its doesn't deal with the complexity of the situation. Everyone is a cardboard character. Of course in fantasy worlds things work out very nicely. This is movies often have happy endings that tie up all the loose ends. However, stories are rarely connected to reality. This is the case with McDowells simple answers to complex questions.
Considering the book claims to be a relational apologetic, its particularly peculiar to me that it would take such a two-dimensional view of human beings. People aren't simple items that you can use forumlas and tricks on (actually yes you can with some people). However, McDowell's bag of tricks is outdated. McDowell continues to make the same arguements (such as the one about Jesus fullfilling 60 major OT prophecies) without even acknowledging the secular counter-arguments (such as the fact that the NT authors easily could have fabricated the fullfilled prophecies).
This is the sort of stuff I was scared apologetics class was going to be. Interesting enough, I enjoy apologetics class a great deal. Its probably my favorite CIU class thus far. I also enjoy evangelism class. However, I do not enjoy the evangelism reading assignments. Actually, today I sent my evangelism professor an email suggesting some books he should check out. Hopefully it will open up a dialogue between the two of us. |
|
|
| Homework, Dreams and Opportunity |
[Mar. 8th, 2006|02:29 am] |
Homework:
I imagine its a little strange that I enjoy doing my homework. At this moment, I have to go to bed so that I can get up for class. I would have preferd to be able to spend more time reading my book for apologetics and writing my field ed. lessons, but I simply need to get more sleep. This whole education thing is really getting in the way.
Dreams:
I had a dream to day that I was riding in a car with a group of CIU students. While driving we were reading our Bible....what else would Bible college students be doing? In the text we read a verse that said "as you pass through the ____ tunnel you will run into a rain storm." Well the _____ tunnel was right in front of us. So we were excited to pass through the tunnel and experience a full filled prophesy. THEN IT HAPPENED!
We passed through the tunnel and on the other side it was a bright sun shinny day. We immediatley jumped out of our car and were shocked. Our faith had been shattered as we realized the Biblical claims simply weren't true. All the other students ran off into lose faith in a river. I stood there contemplating whether I should go on faking like I still believed or whether I should give up the faith....then I realized that the Bible writers were in Israel and not South Carolina. The prophesy wasn't talking about our tunnel. All was restored!!! Then I woke up.
This must mean something.
Opportunity:
As of recently, I've had several really neat opportunities kind of thrown in my lap. Some of it might be pure chance, luck or coincidense, but as a whole, it appears to be more of a God thing. I'm not generally inclined to hyper-spirtualize the details of my life, but sometimes it just seems like God is up to something. Too many pieces happened to fall into just the right place at the right time. These are good times. |
|
|
| Teaching...frustration....praying....PIMPLES....Kill COUNTS and Websites |
[Mar. 6th, 2006|03:36 am] |
| [ | music |
| | Acceptance - So Contagious | ] |
So I'm really enjoying teaching this semester. Being that its for a class, I'm forced to put lots of effort into preparing my talks. The one problem......students aren't coming consistantly. I'm finally at a point where my teaching has become consistant, but we can't figure out how to get students to continue to come. The first week, we printed 20 handouts and we ran out. This week, we printed 20 handouts and only 5 students (all girls) showed up. However, whenever we have a party or a fun event 30 students show up. Its really frustrating. I know, we're doing all we can to take this ministry as seriesly as possible. We've given it structure. We've upped ther professionalism (handouts, structure, consistancy, regularity). We've even have parents comment that there is a new "momentum." However, the students haven't really responded much as of yet. I know I'm basing off only 4 weeks, but its still frustrating to face disappointment.
I found a neat website. Its a website of a band that recorded a hymn CD (lots of people have actually done this). This particular one lets you stream their CD. If you're into that sort of things, check it out.
Stastics and records can be very important. Therefore, I strongly support this website.
I think I have a pimple in my ear. That is absurdly lame.
I was in a couple of prayer groups this past week. Each person would pray for a little while...STOP...then the next person would pray. I'm sure you've been in a simliar groups. I, of course, have also been in many groups like this. For the first time it really stuck out to me how we have our own little prayer lingo. It was so bizzare. We're sitting there praying, whenever someone was done praying they'd say "In Jesus name." It was like passing the baton. We might as well have been saying "TAG!!! You're it." We have a Christian sub-culture and within our subculture we have our own little secret prayer lingo. Its so weird.
I'm starting a new series this next sunday. Its called "Before You Say 'I Do.'" I'm pretty much just using a series my youth pastor, Bobby Pruitt, taught 4 years ago. And its not that He wrote this material either....he got it from a teacher, Dan Dahaan, who really meant a lot to Him when he was my age. ...and Dan Dahaan was apperently heavily influenced by A.W. Tozer. So in teaching this series, I feel like I'm taking part in long heritage of Bible teaching. So its pretty exciting.
Speaking of Bobby Pruitt....he hasn't gotten back to my about interning at Hill Country Bible Church Pflugerville this summer. I'm already starting to plan events for my summer. It would be nice to know if I will be returning to Pflugerville. |
|
|
| John MacArthur and the Emerging Church |
[Mar. 4th, 2006|03:10 am] |
In the past I've enjoyed many of John MacArthur's books, articles, study notes and lectures. For the most part, him and I are fairly similiar theologically. When he talks about doctrine and such, typically I agree with him. However, as time passes, I've slowly come to the conclusion I really don't agree with him on much else.
After a recent issue of the White Napkin (the school's official periodical) dedicated itself to the Emergent Church movement, I had a renewed interest in researching the movement myself. Therefore I decided to go and check out a few Emergent blogs...such as RodsRants.blogspot.com (a CIU professor and Doctor of Guitar) and TallSkinnyKiwi.com (apperently a popular Emergent blog). Eventually, I found an entry on TallSkinnyKiwi discussing how John MacArthur was speaking out against the Emergent Church. With a little more research, I found link a to a lecture he gave this past January, where he spoke out against the Emergent Church.
Now I understand that not everyone is going to agree about everything. Paul was so certain we wouldn't agree about everything that he dedicated an entire chapter in Romans to helping us to agree to disagree biblically. However, what i have no patience for is poorly researched and inaccurate arguments. John MacArthur has dedicated six chapels at Master's Seminary (where he is president) to tearing down the Emergent Church. The problem is that John MacArthur hasn't got a clue what the Emergent Church is. If you were to listen to this lecture by John MacArthur, you would be under the impression that the Emergent church believes that lesbians can be church members and that the Bible is unclear on everything. Of course, if you know anything about the Emergent Church you will realize how silly this is.
If John MacArthur had spent even a small amount of time actually trying to figure out what the emergent church is instead of merely trying to tear it down, he would have realized that the emergent church doesn't believe the Bible is unclear, Brian McLaren does. Sure, Brian McLaren is the post-child for the Emergent Church and he does represent one side of it, but not everyone involved in the movement agrees with Brian. In fact, he's been blasted many times by other members of the movement for his stance on hell, homosexuality and the Bible. One where in the entire lecture did MacArthur ever give the impression that he understood that not everyone in the movement agrees with McLaren. MacArthur doesn't seem to understand that McLaren's "A Generous Orthodoxy" isn't the Emergent Churches text book on hermeneutics.
The entire purpose of the lecture was that the Emergent Church is attacking the Word of God by claiming it is unclear. However, this is simply a complete misrepresentation of the movement. One post-modern church I attended, TerraNova, has been doing an expository series through Mark for over the past 6 months. The pastor regularly quotes John Piper, whom John MacArthur speaks highly of in this lecture). Another, emergent church I'm somewhat familar with has been doing expository sermons through Ephesians and Galations. These aren't churches I've just heard of. These are two of the three emergent gatherings I have direct connections to. Had MacArthur only given me a phone call I could have cleared up all the confusion.
My big with MacArthur is that he has far to large of a platform to be making such sloppy, strawman arguments. It would be one thing if he was merely a confused pastor of a church, but he is not. Instead he is giving lectures at his seminary preaching falsehoods about the Emergent church. He is training a generation of church leaders who will be misinformed about the emergent church. Worse, he'll probably wrote a book (in the line of his attack on the Charismatic church, Charismatic Chaos) attacking the Emergent churc in the near future. He will be misinforming all of his readers.
Is this what debates in Christianity boil down to? Misrepresenting your opponet to make your case look good? This calls into question everything I've read by him and most of the lectures I've heard. I listened to his series on "The Gospel According to Jesus." In light of his treatment of the Emergent church I can easily see how would manipulate information in the Lordship-Free Grace debate. His credibility is greatly in question in my mind, as it should be.
Reading through the White Napkin I was frustrated to read so many articles that seemed to greatly misrepresnt everything I know about the emergent church. I seriously got the impression that most of the writers had merely read an article or two on the emergent church and then wrote a response to the movement in light of those articles. They seemed to completely miss the big picture of what was going on. At first I took this as a sign that the White Napkin needs to expect a bit more research and understanding from their writers. However, as it turns out, their research and understanding AT LEAST rivals that of John MacArthur and often IT SURPASSED his understanding.
So in closing, I can give the White Napkin one compliment, at least you know more about the Emergent Church than well renowned author, speaker, pastor, radio host, seminary president John MacArthur. |
|
|
| John MacArthur and the Emerging Church |
[Mar. 4th, 2006|03:10 am] |
In the past I've enjoyed many of John MacArthur's books, articles, study notes and lectures. For the most part, him and I are fairly similiar theologically. When he talks about doctrine and such, typically I agree with him. However, as time passes, I've slowly come to the conclusion I really don't agree with him on much else.
After a recent issue of the White Napkin (the school's official periodical) dedicated itself to the Emergent Church movement, I had a renewed interest in researching the movement myself. Therefore I decided to go and check out a few Emergent blogs...such as RodsRants.blogspot.com (a CIU professor and Doctor of Guitar) and TallSkinnyKiwi.com (apperently a popular Emergent blog). Eventually, I found an entry on TallSkinnyKiwi discussing how John MacArthur was speaking out against the Emergent Church. With a little more research, I found link a to a lecture he gave this past January, where he spoke out against the Emergent Church.
Now I understand that not everyone is going to agree about everything. Paul was so certain we wouldn't agree about everything that he dedicated an entire chapter in Romans to helping us to agree to disagree biblically. However, what i have no patience for is poorly researched and inaccurate arguments. John MacArthur has dedicated six chapels at Master's Seminary (where he is president) to tearing down the Emergent Church. The problem is that John MacArthur hasn't got a clue what the Emergent Church is. If you were to listen to this lecture by John MacArthur, you would be under the impression that the Emergent church believes that lesbians can be church members and that the Bible is unclear on everything. Of course, if you know anything about the Emergent Church you will realize how silly this is.
If John MacArthur had spent even a small amount of time actually trying to figure out what the emergent church is instead of merely trying to tear it down, he would have realized that the emergent church doesn't believe the Bible is unclear, Brian McLaren does. Sure, Brian McLaren is the post-child for the Emergent Church and he does represent one side of it, but not everyone involved in the movement agrees with Brian. In fact, he's been blasted many times by other members of the movement for his stance on hell, homosexuality and the Bible. One where in the entire lecture did MacArthur ever give the impression that he understood that not everyone in the movement agrees with McLaren. MacArthur doesn't seem to understand that McLaren's "A Generous Orthodoxy" isn't the Emergent Churches text book on hermeneutics.
The entire purpose of the lecture was that the Emergent Church is attacking the Word of God by claiming it is unclear. However, this is simply a complete misrepresentation of the movement. One post-modern church I attended, TerraNova, has been doing an expository series through Mark for over the past 6 months. The pastor regularly quotes John Piper, whom John MacArthur speaks highly of in this lecture). Another, emergent church I'm somewhat familar with has been doing expository sermons through Ephesians and Galations. These aren't churches I've just heard of. These are two of the three emergent gatherings I have direct connections to. Had MacArthur only given me a phone call I could have cleared up all the confusion.
My big with MacArthur is that he has far to large of a platform to be making such sloppy, strawman arguments. It would be one thing if he was merely a confused pastor of a church, but he is not. Instead he is giving lectures at his seminary preaching falsehoods about the Emergent church. He is training a generation of church leaders who will be misinformed about the emergent church. Worse, he'll probably wrote a book (in the line of his attack on the Charismatic church, Charismatic Chaos) attacking the Emergent churc in the near future. He will be misinforming all of his readers.
Is this what debates in Christianity boil down to? Misrepresenting your opponet to make your case look good? This calls into question everything I've read by him and most of the lectures I've heard. I listened to his series on "The Gospel According to Jesus." In light of his treatment of the Emergent church I can easily see how would manipulate information in the Lordship-Free Grace debate. His credibility is greatly in question in my mind, as it should be.
Reading through the White Napkin I was frustrated to read so many articles that seemed to greatly misrepresnt everything I know about the emergent church. I seriously got the impression that most of the writers had merely read an article or two on the emergent church and then wrote a response to the movement in light of those articles. They seemed to completely miss the big picture of what was going on. At first I took this as a sign that the White Napkin needs to expect a bit more research and understanding from their writers. However, as it turns out, their research and understanding AT LEAST rivals that of John MacArthur and often IT SURPASSED his understanding.
So in closing, I can give the White Napkin one compliment, at least you know more about the Emergent Church than well renowned author, speaker, pastor, radio host, seminary president John MacArthur. |
|
|
| O How Personality Gets in the Way of Education |
[Mar. 1st, 2006|05:30 pm] |
| [ | music |
| | Sanctus Real - I'm Not Alright | ] |
Thanks for everyones input on my paper. It was appreciated and it certainly made a different.
INTP
Introvesion - INtuition - Thinking - Perceiving
I haven't made a post about the Myers-Briggs personality test since last August, so I'm well over do. It seems as if I make one of these every 6 months or so.
Anway, one of the chapters in my Foundations of Education text book dealt with The Nature of the Learner. In this section it discussed ow temperament affects both the way we learn and the way we prefer to learn. In this section it discussed the Myers-Briggs test. If you're reading this you've almost certainly taken a version of the Myers-Briggs test. Its the one where you get results like INTP (mine..well I'm only a boarderline P. My INT is pretty intense though) or ESTP.
Back when I was in high school these tests held little interst for me. They never worked. The results never seemed to describe me very well. The problem, most likely, was that the test tests preferences. Like many teenagers, my teen age years were extremely awkward, and I didn't really start to understand myself until after high school (I don't think). So I most likely didn't really even know what I prefered. My brain was filled with a whole mes of ideas that I still needed to sort through.
Well, last May a professional came in and administered this test to the staff at the church I was working at. All of sudden the results seemed to nail me perfectly. He seemed to be able to predict my responses to certain questions with little effort. Here is a my post about the experience. With age I began to have very distinct preferences and therefore the test became far more accurate. Ever since then , I've been fascinated by this test and others.
So my text book made several observations about how different personalities learn. The book actually simplified things a bit and only looked at four of the dominant personality clusters (SP, SJ, NT, NF). As stated before, I'm and INTP. So the NT is only disucssing part of my personality. However, it actually nailed me pretty good though.
Student Descriptor: Has competency (I COMPLETELY AGREE), intellectual curiosity.
Instructional Issues: Independent learner, loves ideas, discussion with teachers and intellectual peers, long-term projects, research, collecting, reading, giving lectures, debating, may not always do homework.
Student Responses to Schooling: May be a loner; may need help (haha); delayed social development (haha); needs priorities (tries to do everything); self-doubting; likes lectures; responds to verbal, logical, well-reasoned dialogue, not physical punishement; expects teachers to be competent.
Its fascinating to me to read a text book that articulates my feelings more clearly than I've ever been able to articulate them. Not only that but it makes several very true statements about my preferences. I've always hated homework. I pretty much stopped doing almost all homework around the 9th grade and didn't start doing it again until last August (obviously I did SOME homework in there but it was like a 10 year gap where I did little homework). Even now I try to find ways around doing day to day homework. However, book reviews, research projects and papers get me pretty excited.
On the subject of CIU's standards, the reason I'm continually frustrated by them is that they're horribly illogical, poorly reasoned, and there is little dialogue on the subject between faculty and students (unless you're an RA or in the school senate). Some people can't stand "complaining," which is particuarly ironic cause they will complain about your complaining. Well, I can't stand bad logic, inconsistantcy and poor reasoning (which is ironic since I'm full of poor logic, inconsistancy and poor reasoning). Thus I will always be frustrated until someone can give me a good reason why are being girls getting called into the deans office because of the number of quite times they have or because they SCORED POORLY ON PERSONALITY TEST (this happened to a girl I was talking the other day). Likewise, until someone can explain to me why guys AREN"T called into the office for these same things I will be frustrated. Of course, simply writing about it on here won't solve anything in and of itself....of coursee, one individual student writing one letter to the deans won't change anything either (I AM IN THE PROCESS OF WRITING A LETTER TO ASK ABOUT THESE INCONSISTANCIES...actually I'm thinking of making it 2 two seperate letters). There needs to be a movement among the students that present well reasoned, biblical arguments to the deans. This requries discussion among the students. There is a huge difference between mere complaining and having valid, reasonable concerns.
On a positive note, my expectation of competence in my teachers is one of the main reasons I'm so pleased with my schooling this semester. I believe all four of my professors are extremely competent. There competence goes a long way. Wester Civ this semester has been a bit......shallow? ....thin on content? However, I still enjoy the class because I enjoy the mind of Jack Layman. Similiarly, New Testament Survey can be light on in-depth content (by its nature) but Williams is a fascinating human being with incredible knowledge. Likewise, obviously some of the material and assignments in evangelism class frustrate me. However, Bill Jones is an incredible evangelist. Any short comings in the class room are over-powered by his testimony. Of course I want to learn from an evagelist with a testimony like his. ...ehh I have no complaints about Apologetics and Gentry intrigues me. On the flip side, I was left with a bit of a bad taste in my mouth after Crutchfield put one bogus question on one of his tests.
Its fascinating to me to look at personality and see how it affects different areas of our lives (like it says, I have intellectual curiosity). Because of my given personsality I'm a bit of a loner and I can't stand routine homework (it makes me feel like they're forcing me to learn their way). Likewise, I'm frustated at CIU because stands that strike me as illogical, but I'm really happy to be here because I'm surrounded by such great minds...and peers I can discuss the curriculum with. However, other people find themselves frustrated by the inconvience of the standards (not really an issue for me), and still other students extremely frustrated by the complaining about standards (as their personalty tends more towards duty, responsibility and service). Likewise, some people will frustrated with a class because of the content of the class, but I'm content merely because of the teacher themself. Its all so very intersting.
So what is your personalty? You can take the test HERE!
http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp
Seriously, I would be very intersting in know what everyones personality is. Its so very intersting |
|
|
| Foundations of Dispensationalism |
[Feb. 26th, 2006|03:34 am] |
| [ | music |
| | Michael W. Smith - I Believe in You Now | ] |
Foundations of Dispensationalism
I'm doing a research paper on Dispensationalism. I end it out to some people to proof read my grammar. If you have any comments on the flow of thought or content, I would love your feedback. If something just doesn't make sense or seems like its out of nowhere, tell me. Thank You
Foundations of Dispensationalism.
Dispensationalism is a system of Bible interpretation which has been influential within evangelical thought through out the late 19th and twentieth century (Elwell 343). The aim of Dispensationalism is to establish a harmony in the Bible through its central focus on the grace of God (Enns 513). Dispensationalism’s central tenet is that the history is explained, in the Bible, as system of eras or dispensations in which God covenants with humanity in various ways (Prothero 184, Roof 188). Dispensationalists derive their system through two primary principles: (1) a consistent literal interpretation of scripture, especially prophecy, and (2) reading Israel and The Church as distinct and separate institutions (Enns 513). Dispensationalism had its beginnings in the teachings of John N. Darby, and it spread through the Bible and Prophecy Conferences, popular literature, and the Bible College Movement.
Throughout Christian history theologians have held dispensational-like concepts, but it was not until the 19th century that it was organized into a system. As early as the 2nd century, Justin Martyr recognized several different economies in the Old Testament (Enns 513). Other Christian theologians such as Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Augustine, Jonathan Edwards and Isaac Watts also recognized distinct eras within the Scriptures (Prothero 184). However, Dispensationalism as a system began with John N. Darby (Grudem 860). In 1831 Darby, an Anglican minister who left the Church of Ireland, helped found the Plymouth Brethren. Central to Darby’s theology was the idea that the Bible explained changes in history as a series of dispensations (Prothero 184). Along with his belief in distinct dispensations, Darby also believed in pre-millennialism, a literalistic hermeneutic, and the strict separation of Israel and the Church (Reid 368). Darby’s theology was a virtual anti-thesis to modernism’s optimism regarding social progress (Prothero 185). Darby, who was Calvinistic, placed as little value in human ability as was possible (Marsden 46). In 1836 Darby first published his dispensational views in an article entitled Apostasy of the Successive Dispensations (Ehlert 49). Though Darby spoke at many conferences throughout Great Britian, his theology was only whole-heartedly accepted by the Plymouth Brethren (Sandeen 89).
Dispensationalism spread quickly in the United States after the Civil War in wake of the Prophecy and Bible Conference Movement (Elwell 344, Sandeen 132). Darby made extended visits to the United States in 1860s and 70s. During these visits he taught his theology in New York, Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis, Boston and Philadelphia (Kraus 46). Through his preaching Darby gained the support of many American church leaders including A. J. Gordon, D. L. Moody, and James H. Brookes (47). Darby eventually spent over six years in the United States propagating his theology (Hart 163). In 1875 the Believers’ Meeting, later called the Niagara Conference, was founded, by James H. Brookes, to provide an opportunity for a variety of ministers and evangelists to come together for private Bible study (Sandeen 136-138, Kraus 72). This conference and others were largely a reaction to the spread of Liberalism (Dollar 70). Brookes, the key speaker at the first Believers’ Meeting, taught distinctly dispensational theology (Sandeen 146). The Niagara Conference continued to meet annually until 1901 (Dollar 28). To gain wider publicity, many of the same leaders, including Brookes, founded the first International Prophesy Conference in 1878. This conference became the model for similar conferences that were held all the way up until World War I (Marsden 46). Still, the impact of these conferences was mostly limited to Northern America (Hart 163).
Dispensationalism found many new followers through the publication of several popular books and pamphlets. In 1878 William E. Blackstone, an active participant in both the Believers’ Meeting and the prophetic conference movement, first published Jesus is Coming, his book on prophesy (Kraus 33). This book popularized dispensational eschatology (Hart 163). By 1917 it had been translated into twenty five languages and 350,000 copies had been printed (Kraus 33). The writings of C.H. Machintosh put Darby’s teachings in a popular form. His writings were influential on D.L. Moody (Sandeen 173). However, the most influential writings came form C.I. Scofield, a close friend of Brookes (223). His first major publication was a pamphlet entitled Rightly Dividing the Word of God (Hart 163). His most significant contribution came in 1909 with the publication of the Scofield Reference Bible (Reid 358). Upon its release it became a best-seller and the standard text for articulating the American version of Dispensationalism (Reid 358, Roof 189). Through the popularity of this book, Dispensationalism was carried around the globe (Hart 163). It served as the basis of personal Bible study for hundreds of thousands of Christians (Ehlert 83). The final step in the popularization of Dispensationalism came in 1947 when Lewis Sperry Chafer, an associate of Scofield, published Systematic Theology, a complete systematic theology written from the Dispensational perspective (Ryrie 215).
Another factor in the spread of Dispensationalism was the Bible School Movement. In the late 19th century a number of fundamentalists started founding Bible Schools as a reaction to Liberalism (Dollar 70). Dispensationalism was taught in many of these new schools (Hart 163). Several of the founders of these schools were influenced directly by Darby and the Bible Conference movement. In 1886 Moody was the lead founder of the Chicago Evangelistic Society, which later became Moody Bible Institute. Gordon founded the Boston Missionary Training School, later called Gordon College, in 1889 (Dollar 71). On the western coast, The Bible Institute of Los Angeles was founded, in 1908, to promote dispensational views (Marsden 119). In 1924 Chafer, along with Scofield, led the founding of Dallas Theological Seminary in hopes of persuading the Presbyterians to accept Dispensationalism (Dollar 160, Sandeen 223). Through these schools and others pastors were trained in Dispensationalism (Roof 189).
Throughout the 20th century Dispensationalism has remained a significant influence on evangelical thought. From the 1950s to the 1970s Dispensationalism went through many modifications. Revised Dispensationalism spread through the writings of several authors, such as Charles Ryrie, and the publication of the New Scofield Reference Bible in 1967 (Elwell 345). This new dispensationalism received its greatest promotion in 1970, when Dallas Theological Seminary graduate Hal Lindsey published The Late Great Planet Earth, an up-to-date explanation of Dispensationalism (Prothero 185). Within its first four years in print, the book had sold 4 million copies (Roof 185). Today it has sold eighteen million copies (Prothero 185). A new form of Dispensationalism began to appear in the early 90s. Progressive Dispensationalism, as it became know, spread through the writings of Robert Saucy, Darrell Bock, and others (Elwell 145). In the 1990s Dispensational eschatology was propelled into the mainstream by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkin’s fictional Left Behind series (Roof 189). Dispensationalism continues to experience popularity in the United States. |
|
|
| Sum Sum Summer Time |
[Feb. 25th, 2006|12:44 am] |
| [ | music |
| | Pantera - Cowboys From Hell (Yeeee - Haaa) | ] |
I'm a bit scared of killing the wonderful discussion going on in the comments on my previous post, but I will overcome.
I'm getting a bit excited about summer time. I keep thinking about how nice it will be to return to Texas and serve in HCBCPF again. The joy of serving at my church in Columbia is that things are still be formed. So I get to be apart of forming and establishing the future of a youth group. Being apart of something that big is very rewarding. However because of the size of the group it can also be very restricting. There was only about 10 students at youth group this past sunday. Obviously a youth group of 10 students will have less resources avaible than a youth group with 90 students. I'm getting really excited about the stuff I'm doing for Crossroads right now, but I'm so excited about it that I really dont' like the idea that I'm only sharing it with 10 students.
In fact the big vision I keep having in my head is me teaching at a night session during Great Adventure Boot Camp (the training for the youth group so they can lead backyard bible clubs). Its a particularly odd vision to have in mind since its SO specific and amounts to a single talk. I imagine its the vision I have in mind for two reasons.
First, bootcamp is a time when students from possibly 3 different churches will all be meeting together in the same place. They're generally the "better" more connected students, and its a more "spiritual," unique and powerful event than your typical sunday morning. The students have been pulled away from their homes and their comfort zones. Therefore, they're in a place where they can really soak in and respond to the Word. All the distractions of life have been pulled away and the light can shine directly into their eyes. I've rarely had an opportunity to teach in that sort of environment.
Second, the Great Adventure had such an impact on my own life that I have a strong attachment to it. Therefore all things associated with the Great Adventure have great meaning to me. I would love to be able to be apart of what God is doing during the Great Adventure in the lives of the students. I want the Great Adventure to mean to them what it means to me, and I want it to have the impact on their lives that it had on mine when I was in the 7th grade.
Of course, thats where things get complicated. P-Ville doesn't have a youth pastor at the moment and therefore I don't know if I can get my position back at my church in Texas. I sent an email to Bobby Pruitt to try and figure out what is going on at Pflugerville this summer. Hopefully that will lead to knowledge and enlightenment.
On a similar note, I also asked Bobby about how one goes about selling a church on the vision of the Great Adventure. I was talking with the youth pastor at the church I'm at in Columbia about what where want our students to be and we both agreed we want them serving in ministry and taking part in what the church is doing. Therefore, for Summer 07 we were hoping to start some sort of massive summer outreach program within our youth group and church. At the moment I'm envisioning it being very similiar to HCBC's Great Adventure, but this merely because we haven't started adapting anything yet. Therefore, basically it would be the students leading backyard bible clubs at homes of members of the church. Thereby involving the students in ministrying to the children and the adults would build a bridge to the parents of the children. Further, at the end of the week we would attempt to have some activity that would connect the familes that attended the clubs to the church (or a church). The youth pastor was pretty excited about this idea, but he really had no idea how we would actually make it happen. Thus, a year and half in advance I'm trying to figure out how we could turn this big bold idea into a practical reality.
On a completely different note, iTunes can be a really nice and really frustrating at the same time. Its really nice that I can get the extra tracks on the Weezer's Blue Albums's special edition without having to pay $30. However, with so many wonderful songs avaible at the click of a button its very difficult not to buy lots of stuff that I don't really want and probably won't spend much time actually listening to. I guess its like my version of Crazy College Student Credit Card Spend.
The Passion Bundle #2 has been stuck at number two for the past couple of days. It doesn't look like we're going to make number one. O well. I'll be honest, I don't think its all that good. The first bundle was much better. I don't really like either one of the songs. The talk probably would have interested me more if not for the fact that I already have it since I bought the Passion 06 box set. ...of course, even with that, the talk from the Passion 05 iTunes EP was still better.
Okay its 1:33 a.m. and I still need to spend more time studying worldviews and attempting to go to bed. Night night |
|
|
| navigation |
| [ |
viewing |
| |
most recent entries |
] |
| [ |
go |
| |
earlier |
] |
| |
|
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
solo_fide's journal