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After dating Nashville for two years, I’m making a commitment and buying a house. Look, isn’t it fun? This is the back yard, complete with a sunroom and mature elm, cedar and maple trees. I get the keys in just a few weeks and will spend much of my summer hauling stuff across town and getting settled; I hate moving but after two cross-country versions this will be a cinch.
Ironically, the down payment for this commitment comes from the money saved for my wedding. Not all the money—my mom insisted we hold a little back so there’s enough for a dress and some butter mints on the off chance I still meet one of the six remaining 30-something normal Christian men in the country. I’m not worried about it—if he really loves me, we’ll get married in the back yard.
child’s play
As last summer wound down, I wrote about my young neighbors and our occasional interactions. As a new summer begins the kids are back outside, and when my cocktail of allergy drugs makes it possible I like to have the windows open—which means I’m once again privy to their many arguments, negotiations, and meltdowns.
Some highlights from this week (imagine these in put-upon, fed-up little voices):
You are not LISTENING to me!
He has my stuff—that’s not FAIR!
You are not even smart. You don’t know what you are saying out of your face.
Come here. Come HERE. COME HERE!
You are a stupid IDIOT head.
Jesus said we must become like children to enter the kingdom of God. Although he meant we should have attitudes of humility and simple faith, we usually settle for simple immaturity instead. Thanks, God, for the thousands of years you have endured our complaining and bickering—all without the benefit of drugs.
watch it
The God Who Wasn’t There, a new documentary directed by a former Christian, “irreverently lays out the case that Jesus Christ never existed” says Newsweek. The film includes interviews with Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, and many others.
You’re probably more aware of this one; Entertainment Weekly called comedian Bill Maher’s Religulous “a blasphemous detonation of all things holy and scriptural.”
A few friendly wagers:
While watching these trailers, at least ten of you inwardly bristled and began running through your mental filing cabinet of apologetic arguments. (Bonus points if “liar, lunatic or Lord” crossed your mind.)
At least seven of you thought something like, “Maher protests too much about the foolishness of religion. It’s like he’s trying to push away what he knows in his heart must be true.”
Most of you felt angry, offended, or embarrassed.
None of you rushed to add these films to your Netflix queue.
I’m really not picking on you—after a long day of work who wants to watch two hours of someone mocking your most cherished beliefs? Even though Maher does occasionally make me laugh out loud (“no one powerful enough to cause nuclear war should be overly eager for the Rapture”), neither movie will offer a relaxing and fun experience for those of us who believe in Christ.
But we need to watch them anyway. Because here’s another bet: at some point you have purchased a Christian book—The Case for Christ, perhaps, or Mere Christianity, or Keller’s Reason for God—and foisted it on your skeptic friend/neighbor/coworker/relative. You knew if they would just read it with an open heart it would change everything. You imagined them studying it, maybe with a highlighter, and coming to realize the foolishness of their doubts and disbelief. You glowed with the thrill of evangelism.
Did you ever consider how your friend or family member felt about that book?
My guess is they read part of it (if they opened it at all) or skimmed a few chapters so they could fake their way through a conversation with you later. They may have considered buying you a copy of The God Delusion. Despite your good intentions, they probably resented your gift as much as you resent Religulous.
Which is ironic, because ultimately the movie is less an attack on God than “the vain, deluded things human beings say and do in His name,” EW writes. American evangelicals’ tendency to stubbornly lecture instead of calmly listen invites the very critiques in these movies. Watching one of them won’t immediately change that, but thoughtfully attempting to understand the frustrations and doubts of unbelievers can. There are worse places to start than an open DVD drive and a closed mouth.
success story
Humorist and cookbook author Peg Bracken once described the difference between a gourmet cook and her own humble efforts this way:
[The gourmet's] assignment had been dessert. So, at dessert time, she brought out big plastic bags of old-fashioned plump chocolate-marshmallow cookies.
“I adore these, don’t you?” she beamed, handing them around. And everyone did, thinking, moreover, How original, how posh! But if someone else had done this they’d have thought, Poor child, how naive!
The same principle applies in other areas—people already established as successes in a particular field can often do no wrong, while an unknown but equally-talented counterpart couldn’t pull off the same thing.
This struck me Monday as the buzz began building around Ben Arment’s announcement of his new STORY conference scheduled this October in Chicago. Until this week Arment served as the “Innovation and Experience Director” at Catalyst and is now going out on his own to create a production company for live events and film. STORY is his first project in this new role.
As soon as the news hit, so did the twittering:
@Church Relevance: Ben Arment is putting together another fresh ministry conference called STORY.
@mknisely: #STORY is going 2 do something significant 4 church communicators & open the possibilities 2 a new way of thinking.
@vjProctor: check out STORY by @BenArment – a first-of-its-kind experience -
@GBrenna: I’m pretty excited about this!!! (thanks @BenArment)
@mknisely: dude. #STORY is going to be off the hook. i cannot wait.
I’m not knocking the conference; in fact, Monday I emailed Christian Standard and offered it to cover it if they would pay my expenses and registration. (No response yet.)
But what I find amazing is that within minutes, hundreds of people around the world were not only talking about this new venture but singing its praises. It’s true Arment has a history of successes, and that influences us; J.J. Abrams was able to get the new Star Trek movie made in part because of his track record creating TV shows like LOST, Alias, and Fringe. We all build on past successes and Arment’s work speaks for itself.
So kudos to him. But I wonder what would happen if someone else, someone less well known and less affiliated with other hip initiatives, created the exact same conference. How much do we miss out on because it’s new or needs better branding? Is it that loser’s fault for not doing a better job grabbing our attention, or ours for being so hard to impress?
In the investment world, past performance does not guarantee future results. But in marketing and personal branding, past coolness predicts future acceptance. “Mrs. Tiffany can wear paste beads, and J. Paul Getty can wear out-at-the-elbow sweaters, too,” Bracken writes. “That’s the way the world wags, and no one has yet discovered what to do about it.”
in the enews—friday
In America, anything over 100 years is old—so Plainfield Christian Church, founded in 1829, is a really old church.
But the church and its leadership don’t take themselves too seriously. PCC is spending a year in the book of Matthew and created this video to easily and humorously reinforce some key themes in chapter six.
By the way, isn’t it nice to hear of a church working through a chunk of scripture together rather than always relying on a four-week series? They’ve learned some things in their 180 years.
in the enews—thursday
I wanted to share this earlier, but I was sworn to secrecy.
Well, not really, since by definition anything presented in enewsletter form can’t be considered confidential. But I like the idea of covert ops—in fact, during our senior year of college, my roommate Kiley and I wasted several evenings participating in a relatively complex scavenger hunt/”spy mission” orchestrated by our friend Matt, who shared our love of all things James Bond and our boredom with all things Grove City.
So today’s enews item, from 2|42 Community Church in Brighton, MI, is extra fun. In a recent church newsletter, 2|42’s lead pastor David Dummitt wrote, “Shhhhhh! Don’t let the rest of the staff know that I’m talking to you! I’m hoping you can help me with something, but it has to be a secret if it’s going to work. May 6th the entire 2|42 staff will spend a day away from the office connecting with God and each other at a staff retreat. Will you help me inspire and encourage them by simply sending me email messages addressed to the staff? You can address one person, one ministry, or the entire staff. You can tell a story or explain how their ministry has helped you take next steps with God. We are so blessed to have not only a tremendously talented and creative staff, but a group of folks that truly love Jesus. Will you help me encourage them?”
Love this—what a kind and meaningful way for Dave to serve his team. Maybe next year he could tape the emails under pianos or rewrite them with invisible ink or make the recipient eat a note after reading it. Just a thought in case Brighton’s as boring as western PA.
in the enews—wednesday
Christian Standard’s enews comes out every Wednesday, and one of today’s stories is a recap of two more baptism celebration weekends, one at Central Christian Church in Las Vegas, one at Mountain Christian Church in Maryland. As with the cardboard testimony craze, people around the country are learning about the huge impact of these weekends—in which the pastor preaches on baptism and invites everyone who wants to make a decision to come forward in whatever they’re wearing and be baptized at that moment—and trying the idea at their own churches. I can be kind of snarky about bandwagons, but you can’t argue with these results: Savannah Christian Church kicked off the idea with hundreds of baptisms, Christ’s Church of the Valley dunked 482 one weekend in January (with another 100+ the next week), and Crossroads Christian in Corona, CA baptized 518 on Palm Sunday.
And then there are these latest two with stories that are wonderful, and wonderfully too numerous to fit in just one online update: Mountain Christian reports “the elderly woman who, with trembling lips, just before she was lowered in baptism, said, ‘Jesus, I’m sorry I kept you waiting so long;’” the woman who cleans the church handing her mop to someone and coming forward in her cleaning uniform; the husband who ran on stage when he saw his wife in the baptistery, shouting his love for her over the music.
Jud Wilhite, senior pastor at Central, writes, “I watched college students, CEOs, soccer moms, bikers, models, entrepreneurs and every other kind of person you could imagine climb into cold water in their street clothes with no regard for themselves, for their clothes, or for their appearance—only Jesus. I stood by a thirty-something guy decked out in $1,000 clothes who could care less about them. He just wanted Jesus.”
Jud notes that his invitation was straightforward and not based on an emotional appeal. “This was not about great programming, but about our great God who chose to move in people’s lives in a tremendous way, in one of the world’s least likely cities,” he says. “I’m reminded of what Paul wrote: ‘God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. As a result, no one can ever boast in the presence of God…. As the Scriptures say, ‘If you want to boast, boast only about the Lord’ (1 Cor. 1:27-31, NLT). We are boasting about the Lord today and so thankful that we could witness his move.”
Hard to be snarky about that.
in the enews—tuesday
“What are the zodiac signs of all the board members?”
“Will it be a problem if I’m angry most of the time?”
“Why aren’t you in a more interesting business?”
“If the pay was right, I’d travel with the carnival.”
These (maybe) real quotes from job interviews demonstrate the importance of practicing your answers before venturing into the job-hunting scene.
On Saturday, professional recruiters helped dozens of people hoping to improve their own interview skills as part of Savannah Christian Church’s “Careers in Transition” program. The pros scheduled one-on-one “mock interviews” and provided feedback and coaching to each participant.
Savannah Christian is a big church, but any church with a skilled business leader or HR professional could do this. “No matter where you went to school, what your GPA, how much experience you have, or who you know, a job interview stands between you and your next job,” the church writes.
Indeed—and judging from these answers, a lot of people out there could use the help. Kudos to SCC for this contribution to the greater good.
in the enews—monday
I’ve mentioned I receive a ton of church newsletters, both online and through the mail, to help me find good stories for Buzz and the weekly Christian Standard enews. (Are you subscribing to the inexpensive print magazine, the free e-zine, or both? Why not? Click here.)
And I’ve mentioned that most of these newsletters share a lot of similar news; the room number for the 101 class and the date of the community service day may vary, but it’s a lot of the same. However, some interesting stuff has come my way lately, so this week we’ll do something different—each day I’ll feature an excerpt or link to a church with some news worth sharing.
We start with Eastside Christian Church in California. Gene Appel moved from Willow Creek to become senior pastor at Eastside last year, and this week his “Gene to the Core” enews announced the hire of Jill Gille as Eastside’s new “Executive Director of Weekend Experiences.” Jill also hails from Willow, having spent ten years there as the Executive Production Manager.
“She will be overseeing and coordinating the efforts of the majority of our on-campus weekend ministries including children’s ministries, student ministries, guest services, worship arts, production, and communications,” Appel writes. “Her vision is to create a conducive environment for all people and all ages to experience the transforming power of God wherever they are at on their spiritual journey in an environment of excellence in worship, teaching, personal interaction, website and printed pieces.”
Wow—that is a MAJOR role, and probably a major change for Gille after working with, as Appel notes, a staff of 30 and several hundred volunteers at Willow. Actually, it’s probably an even bigger change for the current Eastside staff. Here’s to grace abounding among all.
Paul Williams’ column this week, also about Appel and his time at Willow Creek, is also quite interesting. You can read it here……although you’d already know that if you subscribed.
Jennifer Taylor
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