Brian McLaren Reflects

Brian Mclaren has a good post at the Emergent-US blog. Check it out.

Tag: emergent

"The Devil Took Jesus"

I was reading through Matthew 4 as part of my daily Bible reading this evening and I got hung up on a phrase that I have read over and over. In verses 5 and 8, the phrase "the devil to him (Jesus) to [5-the holy city; 8-a very high mountain]." The devil took Jesus? Can the devil lead us in a way that is not sinful? Is obedience to Satan always sin? It's been a while since I've looked closely at Bible passages concerning the power and effects of Satan or researched popular theological teaching about Satan. Maybe I should.

It always seemed to me like Satan was oftentimes portrayed as one who essentially causes someone to sin or perhaps one whose influence was always detrimental to our well-being. But, Jesus apparently had no qualms about letting Satan lead him, to a point. This is a little bit troubling to me at first glance.

Hopefully there is more to come.

Tags: theology, bible, temptation, Satan

"Ctrl + S"

Apparently the good folks at Blogger thought it would be a good idea to make a quick and easy way to publish your post without having to go into that huge hassle of having to actually click on the "publish post" button and thought, "Oh, we'll just make it so you can publish by pushing Ctrl + S" (wow, long sentence). Not a bad idea.

Unless you are a college student with Microsoft Word. Those of us who are used to writing papers and who have ever experienced the searing loss of data in the wee hours of the morning know that Ctrl + S is the savior to everything typed. It's a quick and easy way to save your work in Word. And since I am so proud of my work and don't want to lose any precious thought that I have penned for an assignment, I have gotten into the habit of pressing the Ctrl + S keys after literally every sentence I type. It's to the point that I don't even think about it. It's just second nature. It's served me well, because I can't tell you the last time I lost any of my work for school because of a power failure or computer freeze. I'm a saving madman.

However, this habit gets me in trouble when I am blogging, because I am constantly pressing Ctrl + S as I blog out of habit, which publishes a post on blogger. As I have attempted to write this post, I have pressed Ctrl + S inadvertently at least twice. Maybe thrice. I'm not even joking. It's a lil' frustrating sometimes. Many times I'll compose my blog post in Word to avoid this problem, but other times I don't feel like messing with it. Like now.

What this just accomplished, I don't know. Maybe others out there share my frustration.

Tag: blogger

I took the "Which theologian are you?" Quiz

Not surprisingly, I scored as Karl Barth. When we were studying Karl Barth in Church History last semester, I had to write the reading summary on him for the class (Which meant that was the only chapter in the book I read all semester. Unless Dr. Johnson is reading this blog. In which case, I meant to say, "I loved Olson. I read it cover to cover."). It worked out really well because as I read about him, I was like, "Hey, this is me!" Well, mostly. I liked Barth a lot. I didn't know I was neo-orthodox until I had to write that reading summary on him.

It's a little disconcerting knowing that I am more of a Schleiermacher than an Augustine. I liked Augustine a lot. Thankfully, Finney was on the bottom of my list. But heck, what do those quizzes know?

Here's the results from my quiz:

You scored as Karl Barth. The daddy of 20th Century theology. You perceive liberal theology to be a disaster and so you insist that the revelation of Christ, not human experience, should be the starting point for all theology. Karl Barth 87% Anselm 73% John Calvin 73% Friedrich Schleiermacher 67% Paul Tillich 60% J?Moltmann 53% Jonathan Edwards 47% Augustine 47% Martin Luther 40% Charles Finney 20% Which theologian are you? created with QuizFarm.com

So, for some reason the picture isn't showing up any more. But it was earlier. Drats to Blogger. I'm gonna leave it in its totally depraved state in hope that it will one day be redeemed. Until then, it can only hope for perfection.

Tags: theology, theologian, quizfarm.com, quiz

New Blog Name

I decided that I needed to change my blog's name to something that was shorter and more broad. Before, the title was like a hundred letters long. And it didn't even roll off of your tounge nicely. "Oh, you want the url to my blog? Well, do you have a few sheets of paper to write it down?... Oh, ok. Sorry about that. Maybe some other time."

Also, it was fairly narrow in scope. It centered around youth ministry, theology, and emerging church type stuff, because that tends to be what I write about. Then I realized that if my interests change or if I want to go a different direction with my blog, I needed something that would fit regardless of content.

When I was thinking about it, noticed that a lot of the things I write about on here are pretty much how I want the world to be in an idealized state. I tend to write in terms of ideals and forget about the practicality of things at times. So, this blog is basically by own little utopia. Matt's utopia. Put the two together and... BAM! Mattopia.

Tags: blog, blogger, blogging

Emergent Gathering in New Mexico

I’ve pretty much decided that I am going to attend the Emergent Gathering this October in New Mexico. My ex-roommate Rusty is doing his youth ministry internship in Roswell, NM and told me that he could probably get us some free lodging for the event, which would be baller. I’m really looking forward to it and I hope that this deal doesn’t fall through. Ever since I heard of emergent, I have resonated with their mission. When I came into John Brown University as a freshman, my faith was shattered and challenged quite a bit and I began rethinking first of all about how to “do church.” Later, I realized that my desire to “do church” differently was a result of a shift in my theological focus and understanding. However, this shift in my theology, especially my ecclesiology, was quite frustrating. I felt like there was nothing that I could do to make the widespread changes that I thought obviously needed to be made to conventional methods of church.

Fortunately, I found out about emergent. I don’t even remember how. I read The Emerging Church by Dan Kimball my freshman year, but I don’t think that I really knew about the whole emergent “conversation” until some time later. I think it was through the web somehow. Maybe a blog? I guess it doesn’t matter. And now that I seem to be a little more acquainted with emergent, Kimball’s book was a decent intro, but it focused a lot on the practical ways of doing church (if I remember right; it’s been too long since I’ve read it), and emergent is much bigger than that. While different worship styles are part of emergent, I am more interested in the focus on theology, social justice, and diversity/unity. Needless to say, I took to the emergent conversation quite quickly. I keep up to date mostly through blogs and websites, but I feel like I’ve got a decent handle on many of the influential people behind it and what they stand for. I’m still undoubtedly a neophyte and wish to eventually become a significant contributor to the conversation, but for the past year or two now I have simply been lurking behind the scenes, trying to educate myself and make sure I don’t look like too much of an amateur once I attempt to get involved.

So, I guess it’s time to come from out of the woodwork and really see what this emergent thing is all about at the Emergent Gathering. Before I go, I’m trying to read a few of the books they suggest to read to get a handle on the sorts of people that have been influential in emergent’s thinking. I’m reading Practicing Passion by Kenda Dean right now and hope to read some Leonard Sweet and Brian McLaren before the actual event. I figure that although I’ve been keeping up with blogs lately, it’d be a good idea to read some of the more “polished” texts (aka books) associated with emergent thinking.

Whatever happens, I’m sure it will be a good experience and Rusty and I will probably have some interesting conversations about who knows what.

One thing I haven’t figured out in all this is when to capitalize emergent. Maybe that should be my goal when I go to NM.

Tag: emergent

Pictures anyone?

So blogger will now allow you to add a picture. But, my dial-up connection is so slow that it is taking an hour. Nuts.

Tag: blogger

No blogging for who knows how long

For some reason, my dial-up internet connection doesn't seem to want to publish new blog posts. So, I guess I won't for a while.