Category Archives: Uncategorized

Advent Conspiracy

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I’m skeptical about all things “emergent,” mainly because it is impossible to nail down the theological underpinnings of all things “emergent” (and they – whoever “they” are – like it that way!).

I recently read a news story about two ladies in Ohio who started a campaign to buy up billboards on interstates to share the message that “It’s OK to say Merry Christmas.”

You should know by now how I feel about the efforts of well-meaning Christians to keep Christ in CHRISTmas. Now it seems there is a group of believers who are being just as proactive to ensure that Jesus’s birth isn’t associated with rampant year-end consumerism.

The article made reference to a group called Advent Conspiracy. I’d never heard of it, even though for the past two years they have raised more than $3.5 million dollars for social causes around the world.

Turns out it’s those hard-to-define “emergents” who are behind this conspiracy to replace consumerism with compassion at Christmas. Five pastors collaborated in 2006 to start the conspiracy among their own churches -churches with names like Imago Dei Community and Ecclesia. My interest was peaked.

So peaked that on Monday’s Paul Edwards Program I’ll talk with the Creative Director at one of these “emergent” churches: Tony Biagnne of Windsor Crossing in St. Louis, MO. Hopefully your interest is peaked enough to tune in at 4:00 pm ET on Monday.

Planning Christmas Eve Worship

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Our worship leader will be out of town over Christmas, so I’m planning the annual Christmas Eve gathering. We always limit the program to between 45 and 60 minutes, starting at 5:00 pm, so the service can act as a sort of prelude to family gatherings later that evening. It’s always been fairly traditional, but this year I’m thinking about opening the evening with a Jars of Clay video of a live performance of “Little Drummer Boy.”

I need your help. If you were taking your family to a Christmas Eve gathering at a church, what would you expect to be included in the program?

Waitin’ On a Woman

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momdadToday’s snow day provided an opportunity for me to do something I haven’t done in months: watch GAC.

The first video up was Brad Paisley’s Waiting on a Woman, with Andy Griffith. I’d never heard the song or seen the video until today.

Andy Griffith has always reminded me of my dad, and seeing him in this video brought back so many memories of my dad in the driveway, or in the church parking lot, or in Sears, or in the grocery store…waiting on my mother.

“I read somewhere statistics show, the man’s always the first to go.”

Dad died five years ago this past September. Mom turned 80 last July. Follow this link to watch the video to the end and you’ll know why I’m crying.

Twitter

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Scott Wilder from KWRD in Dallas introduced me to Twitter when we were in Senegal, West Africa together at the beginning of September. I noticed that about every hour or so he was using his iPhone to send Twitter updates about what we were doing at that exact moment on our trip to take Bibles to Africa. I was intrigued. I started using it myself shortly after returning to Detroit.

Twitter is like a mini-blog post, limited to 140 characters (NOT words). I have the Twitterific application on my MacBook desktop which allows me to give brief updates throughout the day.

If you are not following me on Twitter I want to invite you to do so by going to http://twitter.com/godandculture. Just click the “Follow” link when you get there.

Twitter not only allows me to keep people who follow me updated, but I also follow the tweets of several different people. Often these short tweets will inform me of a news item or some other bit of information, or even what a particular person is reading or thinking about, that is quite useful in preparing for my radio program or for preaching. Twitter is about more than just social networking (though that is a major part of it). Real information is being exchanged and you risk being on the back side of the curve if you are not using Twitter. You can follow the updates of anyone who has a Twitter account, so long as they aren’t blocking you. My account is open to anyone who wishes to follow me.

If you are not using Twitter, I would encourage you to learn more about it at twitter.com. If you want more information about the benefits of Twitter, Rhett Smith’s post on the subject is a great place to begin.