A month or so ago I went to a weekend intervarsity retreat. I don't remember much from it, but i did write a few things down. As i was just reading through my notes, i spotted something that i had wanted to remember- "Pray like a texting conversation"
I think it was a reference that one of the speakers made, but it got me thinking.
Ever since the advent of "unlimited texts", teenage girls (and some guys) will spend the entire day with multiple conversations running with multiple people.
Like, they start off each day with a "hey" to the same person, and then throughout the day, they have their noses in their phones going back and forth and back and forth until bedtime.
Its really annoying.
Constant connected communication is one of the great paradigms of the 21st century- incredibly useful and also incredibly crippling.
But i think its really cool that we can stay in touch with our friends for the entire day, even if we don't see them once.
Prayer ought to be exactly the same thing.
Mature christians usually have a "quiet time" or a "prayer time" set apart in their day where they pray to God- and that's a good thing.
But it's a much deeper place when in addition to that, you never take your mind off of God- praying ceaselessly, like a texting conversation, every minute, every day.
back and forth, back and forth. That includes listening.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Sunday, November 15, 2009
on "society"
You've heard it in church thousands of times:
"society is going downhill, blah blah blah."
church people always talk about how our culture is ruining our minds and money money money girls girls girls blah blah blah.
society isn't going downhill, and i'm sick of hearing about it.
society is reverting to how it used to be.
the "Western World" we've all learned to love is the culture that the church created.
Before that was Roman times, and Mayan times, and Babylonian times, and Greek times, and Sumerian times, and Chinese times.
Romans in the year 0 had a culture that any of today's teenagers would be shocked at. The world isn't going downhill. The world has always been at the bottom of the hill. We've just grown up in an age where the world has been in a temporary state of "suspend", where for a brief 1500 year timespan, Christianity defined our society. That is coming to a close. We have to stop wishing that things would be all warm and cozy and be willing to actually do something with our faith besides have potluck dinners and hang out with old people. It's time to get out there and actually win souls.
"society is going downhill, blah blah blah."
church people always talk about how our culture is ruining our minds and money money money girls girls girls blah blah blah.
society isn't going downhill, and i'm sick of hearing about it.
society is reverting to how it used to be.
the "Western World" we've all learned to love is the culture that the church created.
Before that was Roman times, and Mayan times, and Babylonian times, and Greek times, and Sumerian times, and Chinese times.
Romans in the year 0 had a culture that any of today's teenagers would be shocked at. The world isn't going downhill. The world has always been at the bottom of the hill. We've just grown up in an age where the world has been in a temporary state of "suspend", where for a brief 1500 year timespan, Christianity defined our society. That is coming to a close. We have to stop wishing that things would be all warm and cozy and be willing to actually do something with our faith besides have potluck dinners and hang out with old people. It's time to get out there and actually win souls.
Monday, November 9, 2009
on funerals
My uncle passed away this past thursday.
Sunday morning at noon i boarded a train to penn station, then got on the LiRR to huntington to get picked up by my dad. Ate pizza, and got to the church at 6:15.
Left the church at 11.
My dad decided to drive me back instead of taking a train in the morning. Drove from 12am until 3:30. I just finished my physics homework. I'll be going to bed for 3 hours shortly.
Basically, My entire sunday and the first 4 hours of monday have been spent getting to, going to, and coming back from my uncle's funeral.
It was entirely worth it.
The church had a pretty good size sanctuary.
It was absolutely jam-packed. 1500 people came out to the service.
My mom, my other uncle, and my cousin gave speeches.
I learned a lot about him that i never knew.
I also learned this:
His dying wish was that his entire family would be saved.
My uncle's speech turned into a salvation message.
After the pastor gave a sermon, he gave a call for salvation, and about 25 people answered that.
I never got a chance to really get to know my uncle that well, and i'm regretting that. He wasn't a pastor, he owned an auto shop with his brother. But his influence on the community was enormous. His funeral saved 25 people. That's wild.
The pastor then compared death with physical birth.
After 9 months of being in the womb, we simply can't stay in there any longer. We have to bust out of it and experience real life, not the safety of the inside of Mom. I think that's a cool way to think about death from a christian perspective. After 18 years of lymphoma in and our of remission, and after 2 months of leukemia, my uncle needed to bust outta here. From the stories i've heard, from the pictures i've seen, he lived at least 3 lives' worth on earth. He needed to get out of here and go hang out with Jesus in real life.
I had more to say but my 8am calc quiz is in 4 hours. and this kitchen smells disgusting.
Sunday morning at noon i boarded a train to penn station, then got on the LiRR to huntington to get picked up by my dad. Ate pizza, and got to the church at 6:15.
Left the church at 11.
My dad decided to drive me back instead of taking a train in the morning. Drove from 12am until 3:30. I just finished my physics homework. I'll be going to bed for 3 hours shortly.
Basically, My entire sunday and the first 4 hours of monday have been spent getting to, going to, and coming back from my uncle's funeral.
It was entirely worth it.
The church had a pretty good size sanctuary.
It was absolutely jam-packed. 1500 people came out to the service.
My mom, my other uncle, and my cousin gave speeches.
I learned a lot about him that i never knew.
I also learned this:
His dying wish was that his entire family would be saved.
My uncle's speech turned into a salvation message.
After the pastor gave a sermon, he gave a call for salvation, and about 25 people answered that.
I never got a chance to really get to know my uncle that well, and i'm regretting that. He wasn't a pastor, he owned an auto shop with his brother. But his influence on the community was enormous. His funeral saved 25 people. That's wild.
The pastor then compared death with physical birth.
After 9 months of being in the womb, we simply can't stay in there any longer. We have to bust out of it and experience real life, not the safety of the inside of Mom. I think that's a cool way to think about death from a christian perspective. After 18 years of lymphoma in and our of remission, and after 2 months of leukemia, my uncle needed to bust outta here. From the stories i've heard, from the pictures i've seen, he lived at least 3 lives' worth on earth. He needed to get out of here and go hang out with Jesus in real life.
I had more to say but my 8am calc quiz is in 4 hours. and this kitchen smells disgusting.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
genre
Worship Genres that i would like to see more of:
Hip-Hop Worship.
Dance-Worship.
Ambient Instrumental Worship.
Progressive Indie Alt-Rock Mutemath "reset-EP" style worship.
i miss jumping around with my bass on my shoulder.
Hip-Hop Worship.
Dance-Worship.
Ambient Instrumental Worship.
Progressive Indie Alt-Rock Mutemath "reset-EP" style worship.
i miss jumping around with my bass on my shoulder.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
on churching
just got back from watching the iHeart film.
it was incredible.
So much passion.
So much awesome.
SO. many. people.
There was a really good quote from Reuben Morgan.
I can't remember it entirely, but it's paraphrased roughly as such:
"The Message is perfect. The message is infallible. The message is complete. So there must be something wrong with the way people are telling it."
I love that. The only reason billions of people in the world aren't running to God with everything they have is because we're really, really, really bad at telling people about Him. All the successful witnessing and conversions are direct results of God's work.
I've read a lot about the "Local Church" lately.
How important it is, how integral it is to have a Local Church for our walk with God.
And Hilllsong is here showing us that the "Local Church" isn't a building, isn't a sunday morning worship service, it's US.
I want to start a Local Church that doesn't "do" church.
I want to start a "local church" that has a sunday morning service that consists of some musical worship and a quick sermon.
And then every other day of the week, i want my local church to have small groups for believers to actually grow.
And then every other day of the week, i want my local church to actually DO something. To volunteer. To serve. To love.
I don't want a local church that collects a tithe on sunday mornings and then structures a budget around that.
I want a local church that consists of its members giving unconditionally regardless of what day it is, and one where the "operating budget" is a teeny, tiny, sliver of what is actually collected.
I want a local church that sends anyone and everyone to the corners of the earth for the sole purpose of loving other people.
i want a church that the people invest in.
i want a church where there is no "inside" and where there is no "outside".
i want a church that is everyone.
I realize that there is a lot of "me" in this post.
I apologize. It's late. I'm emotional. This is my 100th blog post since January 9th, 2006, when I was a highschool freshman riding a school bus to and from somersworth highschool every day.
it was incredible.
So much passion.
So much awesome.
SO. many. people.
There was a really good quote from Reuben Morgan.
I can't remember it entirely, but it's paraphrased roughly as such:
"The Message is perfect. The message is infallible. The message is complete. So there must be something wrong with the way people are telling it."
I love that. The only reason billions of people in the world aren't running to God with everything they have is because we're really, really, really bad at telling people about Him. All the successful witnessing and conversions are direct results of God's work.
I've read a lot about the "Local Church" lately.
How important it is, how integral it is to have a Local Church for our walk with God.
And Hilllsong is here showing us that the "Local Church" isn't a building, isn't a sunday morning worship service, it's US.
I want to start a Local Church that doesn't "do" church.
I want to start a "local church" that has a sunday morning service that consists of some musical worship and a quick sermon.
And then every other day of the week, i want my local church to have small groups for believers to actually grow.
And then every other day of the week, i want my local church to actually DO something. To volunteer. To serve. To love.
I don't want a local church that collects a tithe on sunday mornings and then structures a budget around that.
I want a local church that consists of its members giving unconditionally regardless of what day it is, and one where the "operating budget" is a teeny, tiny, sliver of what is actually collected.
I want a local church that sends anyone and everyone to the corners of the earth for the sole purpose of loving other people.
i want a church that the people invest in.
i want a church where there is no "inside" and where there is no "outside".
i want a church that is everyone.
I realize that there is a lot of "me" in this post.
I apologize. It's late. I'm emotional. This is my 100th blog post since January 9th, 2006, when I was a highschool freshman riding a school bus to and from somersworth highschool every day.
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