Our community is tackling the gospel of Mark these days... or maybe I should say that it is tackling us. I'm increasingly sensing that we're listening to the ways of Jesus and the language of the kingdom.

At this moment I'm watching a DVD of Rich Mullins... I long to meet and greet him someday. He's helped my family know the reality of the kingdom in greater ways than if we hadn't known his songs as well as his challenging of the established church, his challenging of being politically 'right' and being a Christ follower... When I first heard Rich in concert regarding these challenges, I remember the audience chucking a bit.

I believe my theology is increasingly about the life of Jesus and the reality of the kingdom, and Rich was right. He knew both of these realities better than most of us. When I am at God's best, I long for that kind of reality in my life.

We've got a long ways to go, and we need the reality of the kingdom to reshape our lives, our politics, and what we consider to be the church of Jesus Christ... Let us go forward with the same passion that shaped the saints of yesterday!

"boyz @ play" / photograph rights of anna buist

The Ultimate in Seeker Sensitive... this proved to be a farce, but still~
Not unrelated to Joel's post yesterday, we have a church now selling sky boxes and reclining chairs...

FRESNO — On Sunday morning at the 18,000-member Calvary Church, tithers flash green Costco-like cards at greeters, who let them in early and usher them to special seating areas. "The seats have more padding, and they recline... read the whole story here. http://www.larknews.com/february_2005/secondary.php?page=4

Just read the transcript of the Larry King interview with Brian McLaren, TD Jakes, Tim & Beverley LaHaye, and Franklin Graham. I stopped and almost choked when I read this:

KING: Does the Christian church care about Social Security, tax, war in Iraq?

T. LAHAYE: No. We care about moral values.

hmmmmm.... does anyone else see a problem here? This is the guy who made millions on the Left Behind series--the series of wildly popular books about the end of the world based on a theology that this world is a place that Christians ought to try to escape (and so who cares about Social Security, tax, war in Iraq, etc?).

If you have any of his books in your library, sell them and go buy Jim Wallis' "God's Politics."

From the mouth of a child... (chapter 1)
Tonight while laying next to my daughter as I tucked her into bed, I told her about some friends who are moving elsewhere. She doesn't know them real well, and yet... she got tears in her eyes as I told her.

Here's what struck me... she was saddened immediately. A small part, and yet somehow a signficant part, of her life is going to change. She cares. There is something about community that kids get... as in they get it.

As we grow up we become individulistic consumers who are concerned about our well being, and we too often lose sight of community. The world becomes about me and my problems instead about us and our problems.

And I'm afraid that the most tragic part of losing this sense of community is that we lose corporate identity (the meaning of real church), and we lose the corporate wisdom that goes along with being God's people together.

... just a few thoughts...