Church signs.

A local church has my favorite church sign ever. All they post is occasional meetings and some scripture. Perfect.

Is anyone really brought to church by these signs? What is their purpose? This one almost caused me to have an aneurysm induced traffic accident this morning:

Salvation so easy a cave man can do it.


AAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

I can't even approach the number of ways in which this is wrong. If you've got some of your own disturbing church signs, put them here, or better yet, come on over to Theologeeks and add them there.

Techgnostics

New words are interesting to me. Ginormous is in the dictionary now (though blogger spellcheck doesn't like it, nor the word spellcheck). When I read a comment by Brian Volck at Ekklesia, he used the hyphenation techno-gnosticism. I searched techgnosticism and found lots of links, so now I have a new word for a subject which is getting discussed a lot lately.

It's easy to see why. This new "medium" which is created and manipulated each day leads to some very obvious disconnects between mind and body. There are plenty of stories about how much more blurred the lines between the worlds of cyberspace and meatspace are becoming.

One of the articles Brian directs us to is the story of a man who plays the online game Second Life to such a degree that it could easily be said that it has become his primary life. But he's not the only one who is blurring the lines between the real and the hyperreal. IBM employees are now planning a strike in Second Life. Lawsuits are being started over land in Second Life. And, of course, there are new church plants in SL.

If we could just say "it's one game, a fad, not a trend" then we'd probably have little to discuss, but it's not. SL is just the easiest thing to point to. Myspace, youtube, facebook, all are aspects of this new world that seems to be growing. There are some who even say there is about a 20% chance we're living in the matrix already.

I'm not saying it's all bad or that we should all unplug our computers or stop reading blogs, but we should talk about how we're affected by the cyberworld, and we should be wary of the ways in which we are separated from the temple of the Holy Spirit when we enter this other world.

Jesus-Do

I recently searched "Jesus-do" which in my mind, means the way of Jesus.

Do (think "dough") is a word that you'll see in various martial arts. Taekwondo, karate do, etc.,. It just means "the way of". Because the early church was sometimes referred to as "the way", when I think Jesus-Do, that's what I'm reminded of. Google, however, sees it much differently, and the fact that when I searched it, I didn't see it as part of the phrase "What would Jesus do?" is funny to me. Thank God for joy given in simple things.

Coffeehouse Theology

Last night three people gathered at a local church, drank some coffee and talked. It was inspiriting. I feel somewhat better than I did in my previous post re: my poor addled brain.

We were gathered to start talking about Christian theology. We spent some time discussing possible subjects and others who might like to participate. Several people couldn't be there this time, but are planning to join us next time. Next month, we'll be talking about polygamy. It should be an interesting session and I hope we'll have a few more folks to share coffee with.

Grace and Peaches.

Grace and Peaches.

One of the fun things I get to do as part of my involvement in the Ekklesia Project is read church newsletters, some sermons, and other miscellaneous items from pastors in the Project, and publish them on the EP website. I really like this one:

http://www.ekklesiaproject.org/content/view/231/67/

My brain is unsettled

So I actually have about 5 different things in draft form. I'm at a low point right now, and feeling discouraged about many things. Not that I don't have too many blessings to count, just that I'm too annoyed with too many things to take time to count them. I think the biggest thing bothering me is the pastor of the church I worship with. I think he's probably not a good pastor, and though as a United Methodist, I can hope that he's moved, that bothers me too.

I'm simply not sure that wanting him to go somewhere else is the proper response. I know that UMs are working on improving the itinerancy, and I know that if he had been directed better in the early years of his ministry, our church, and others before, would have benefited, but that doesn't help me here and now. The church hasn't trained me properly with how to deal with the loss of a good pastor or the gain of a bad one. I know that the only reason I'm still trying is because God strengthens me. The daily prayer helps.

Lord God, almighty and everlasting Father, you have brought

us in safety to this new day: Preserve us with your mighty

power, that we may not fall into sin, nor be overcome by

adversity; and in all we do, direct us to the fulfilling of your

purpose; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.