From Relevant:

After a concert on Sunday, Bono met with Chilean President Ricardo Lagos, who awarded the singer the nation’s highest award for the arts. Before the concert, Bono also received Amnesty International’s 2005 “Ambassador of the Conscience” award, officially making Bono’s medal count higher than the American downhill ski team

It’s funny cause it’s true!

If you don’t subscribe to the Relevant Podcast you need to!

This week’s podcast features the first of two installments of a poignant and eye-opening interview with author Don Miller. Don speaks with the Relevant staff about postmodern thought, the war in Iraq, Christians response to culture, and the Christian legacy of peace. Don’s words go along with what I posted on Friday concerning theological reflection. A great podcast. I encourage you to check it out!

Don Miller broke onto the scene with his book Blue Like Jazz and has become a highly sought after speaker. BLJ really struck a chord with twenty-somethings all over the planet and just took off. I was mentally stretched by the book and was challenged by Don’s real and raw style. I had a chance to meet Don back in October at the Catalyst conference. He was warm and engaging and I think that his personality really comes across in the podcast. Again, great stuff. I can’t wait for the second installment.

Relevant Magazine

“Practical theological reflection- reflection that connects what we believe about God with how we live as disciples of Jesus Christ- is the first task of ministry with young people.”

I have begun re-reading Starting Right: Thinking Theologocally About Youth Ministry a powerful and thought-provoking tome edited by Kenda Creasy Dean, Chap Clark, and Dave Rahn. Hopefully, I will be transitioning into full-time youth ministry at a church in the next few months and I wanted to reconnect with this book that has meant so much to me. Starting Right was one of those books I read before I gradutaed college. It helped me form my philosophy of ministry and helped me look at ministry to students from the perspective of the total mission of the church. I have enjoyed being reminded of how powerful and necessary practical theology is today, not just for my students but for me as well.

In the opening chapter, Kenda Creasy Dean tells us that “adolescents traffic in theology everyday.” However, she says, “most of their theological reflection goes unheard, unnamed, and unclaimed.”

They are unaware that their social studies discussion on freedom is a theological discussion. They don’t realize that the way they treat an unpopular classmate reflects a doctrine of creation.

We all, students and adults alike, engage in theological reflection whether we admit it or not. Just because I have the title of minister doesn’t mean that I have the theological market cornered all for myself. Theology is simply “human reflection on who God is and how God works in the world.” It is as simple as that. The way you veiw your job, the way you treat your coworkers or employees, the way you act toward people of other races, how you treat people of different religions, and the way you live your life all come from at least some sort of theological reflection on your part. You are a theologian.

I’ll continue this thought after the weekend but I want to encourage you to begin to hear, name, and claim the theology that you’ve been living. Be conscious of it.

“Our critics — I’ve met them in rock ‘n’ roll in the early years and they’re the same people: cranks carping from the sidelines. A lot of them wouldn’t know what to do if they were on the field. They’re the party who will always be in opposition so they’ll never have to take responsibility for decisions because they know they’ll never be able to implement them. We get hits from the left, we get hits from the right, but in the end, every year, the world’s poor are better off for our presence.”

Sometimes it is difficult to see if what you are working on or pouring your life into is really making a difference in the lives of the people you serve. There will always be critics and “cranks” that love to stand in opposition. Whether your a youth minister, a coach, a social worker, a teacher or a globe-trotting rock star philanthropist- keep up the good work.

Stand firm. Be rooted in love. Keep making a difference for the Kingdom.

Via

Unfortuantely for them, they keep making statements like this that alienate consumers.

“Nor does the fact that permission to make a copy in particular circumstances is often or even routinely granted, necessarily establish that the copying is a fair use when the copyright owner withholds that authorization. In this regard, the statement attributed to counsel for copyright owners in the MGM v. Grokster case is simply a statement about authorization, not about fair use.”

What does this mean? What exactly is the Recording Industry Association of America hinting at?

The RIAA is now saying that ripping your own CDs to your iPod or other portable device doesn’t constitute as fair use.

The filing also says that creating a back-up CD of an album that you purchased goes against the RIAA’s current fair use policy.

Why can’t this industry get its act together? All this will do is encourage more people to steal music or purchase music from iTunes-like online distributors. Be sure to read the article from EFF and check out the legal briefings and the legal flip-flopping that is coming to define the RIAA as an association that doesn’t care about its clients or consumers.

Link
Via

The toxic cane toad in Australia is evolving into an “eco-nightmare” capable of covering huge distances, a study in the journal Nature reports.

They kill snakes, lizards, water birds - even crocodiles and dingos.

A young boy from Springfield has been brought in for questioning. Details as the emerge.

BBC NEWS Link

Update: This morning @U2 posted a link to Macnn which has posted a pic of the fake invite. Now can you see why I got a little excited? According to Macnn, the invite was sent from a user in Germany and according to @U2, Bono will be in Bueno Aries on March 1st so a press confrence in the US would be pretty difficult to pull off. Even for Bono.

I got way too excited over a post on iLounge that announced that Bono and Steve Jobs might be holding a press confrence in March to announce a red iPod as part of the Product Red initiative. Alas, the rumors turned out to false.

Minutes after I saw the post, iLounge posted a retraction:

Contrary to an earlier report, Apple will not be holding a special event on March 1. An Apple representative has confirmed to iLounge that an electronic invitation - marked with indicia of a benefit for AIDS - is an elaborate fake. The sender was apparently taking advantage of recent speculation that Apple would introduce a red iPod as part of Bono’s Product RED initiative. iLounge apologizes for any confusion this may have caused.

Companies including American Express, Converse, Gap and Giorgio Armani have all joined the project and plan to release specially-designed red products with a portion of the profits going to the Global Fund to support AIDS programs in Africa. The U2 frontman was reportedly overheard mentioning that Apple would be joining the initiative and introduce a red iPod.

I hope that Apple will join with Product Red sometime soon. There is always hope. Until then, I should learn to temper my excitement. The news that this was a fake has been a total bummer.

iLounge.com

Scott, this one’s for you buddy!

I am totally digging on some Jack Johnson at the moment. I have been listening to the new soundtrack to the Curious George movie entitled Sing-A-Longs and Lullabies. Absolutely brilliant! The chord structures are so simple. The title of the album is totally appropriate. One minute I was singing and the next I was wishing for a cot so I could scoot off to dreamland.

I popped in Jack’s last album, In Between Dreams, and got lost daydreaming. With Spring around the corner, I need to be a little more careful about listening to Jack. He makes me want to take my shoes off and wade into the ocean. I barely got out of college in the middle of the country, I can’t imagine how much school I would have missed at the beach if my parents had let me go to college in California.

Out of all the songs on In Between Dreams, I love Breakdown the most. On the DVD Live at the Greek Jack explains that he wrote this song while on the train between European gigs. He said that as they were passing through the little villages and towns he began thinking about all those people that lived there. He was tired and wasn’t too excited about getting to the next show. He wanted the train to “breakdown” so he could get out into those towns and meet people and soak up the atmosphere.

I’ve been spending quite a few weekends on the road in my car and inside airplanes and airports. As I’ve sat watching people and as I’ve looked down at the cities and farmlands or looked out over the plains in Texas or ricefields in Arkansas I have had this song in the back of my head. Sometimes we just need to slow down and soak it in.

What do you need to “breakdown?” As the wise philospher Ferris Bueller once said, “Life moves by pretty fast. If you don’t stop to look around once in a while you could miss it.” So go ahead, take off your shoes, slow down, wade into the ocean and daydream a little. You’ll thank yourself later.

Breakdown

I hope this old train breaks down then I could take a walk around
See what there is to see, time is just a melody
With all the people in the street walking fast as their feet
Can take them, I just roll through town
And though my window’s got a view, well the frame I’m looking through
Seems to have no concern for now
So for now I

I need this here old train to breakdown
Oh please just let me please just breakdown

Well this engine screams out loud, centipede going to crawl westbound
So I don’t even make a sound cause it’s going to sting me when I leave this town
And all the people in the street that I’ll never get to meet
If these tracks don’t bend somehow
And I got no time that I got to get to where I don’t need to be
So I

I need this here old train to breakdown
Oh please just let me please just breakdown

I want to break on down
But I can’t stop now
Let me break on down

But you can’t stop nothing if you got no control
Of the thoughts in your mind that you kept and you know
That you don’t know nothing but you don’t need to know
The wisdom’s in the trees not the glass windows
You can’t stop wishing if you don’t let go
Of the things that you find and you lose and you know
You keep on rolling, put the moment on hold
Because the frame’s too bright, so put the blinds down low

I need this here old train to breakdown
Oh please just let me please just breakdown

I got to break on down
But I can’t stop now

Jack Johnson Official Site

Back in 1999, I had the chance to study overseas in Athens, Greece. Being a Bible major and a lover of art this was the thrill of a lifetime. I would get to walk where the Apostle Paul walked and I would lay my eyes on some of the most beautiful works of art in the Western world. I was stoked. That is until I got a lecture from one of my professors about the dangers of ancient art.

I remember it like it was yesterday. I was studying a beautiful stone sculpture of Poisideon/Zues when my professor walked up next to me. I was lost in the lines and the contures of the statue when I heard the professor give off a little sigh. I felt like sighing too. How could a human being create such a thing? How many hours or days or weeks did it take to create such beauty? I was about to ask the prof what he thought when he spoke. In a disapproving southern drawl he stated, “Nothing but pornography.”

What? I hadn’t even noticed the nudity. I wasn’t even aware of it but I sure was then. I turned to him and commented how the statue just needed a good set of Levi’s. “Yeah, slap a pair of blue jeans on him and it’ll be ok, ” I said. I walked out of that museum with a myriad of emotions: anger, saddness, guilt, frustration. The statue was not in any sexual pose or provocative stance but I couldn’t get over his response. I wanted to throw up but I couldn’t pin point the reason. From that point on I felt almost guilty for looking at any statue that wasn’t completly covered. This prof took something of beauty and made it and a thousand other pieces vulgar in the blink of a eye. During our travels we did see some art work that was created specifically for sexual response. Believe me, there is a huge difference between that “art” and the sculptures I was admiring that day. The overtly sexual images made me blush whereas a piece like the Venus DeMillo reminded me of how beautiful the human form can be and how talented and creative and awesome our God is!

Throughout the Christian community the debate over art and pornography rages on. There is quite a stir being caused by the latest issue of Leadership Journal. The latest issue “deals with ministry amid a sexually charged culture” but it isn’t the articles that are causing the flap. It is the cover.

The cover photo is a detail from the famous statue of Pallas-Athena that stands in front of the Parlament building in Vienna. Athena was the war goddess of ancient Greece, but also worshiped as the goddess of wisdom. The Viennese statue was erected as a tribute not only to Athena but also the four rivers that were once a part of the Austrian Empire: the Danube, Elbe, Po, and Vistula.

As you can see from the photo, the statue is only partial covered. Many who recieved the issue have written in and taken the journal to task for their “irresponsible” decision to run this cover.

I can understand why some people might be bent out of shape but when I saw the cover I wasn’t immediately shamed by the statue. The photo matches the design style of nearly every other cover that I have seen from Leadership. The editorial team explained that the use of the photo was trying to communicate a number of things including:

1. Christian leadership has always been practiced amid sexually charged cultures.
2. Interest in sex is common ground between Christians and non-Christians.
3. The gospel has important things to say about sex, but we need help articulating them in a way the culture can appreciate.

You can follow the conversation if you would like at Leadership’s blog, Out of Ur. There are already some great responses. Feel free to add your own.

As for the discussion here: What do you think about it all?

Let me know. I am interested in how you feel on the subject.

Link

I went to school at Dallas Christian School and had quite a few close friends attend Abilene Christian University which is begining its lectureship next week that is holding a session entitled From Rage to Ecstacy: U2 and the Psalms about which Beth at U2 Sermons, one of my favorite sites, posted about yesterday.

Wierd.

Last night, nearly twenty years after accepting the award for their definative album, The Joshua Tree, U2 took the Grammy stage and accepted the Album of the Year award for How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. Bono spent the bulk of his acceptance speech praising the other nominees which included Paul McCartney, Gwen Stefani, and Kanye West. He’s a class act that Bono. Class Act!

Not only was HTDAAB named album of the year but it won every award that it was nominated for including Rock Album of the Year, Song of the Year (Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own), Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal, and Best Rock Song (City of Blinding Lights).

Best. Band. Ever.

Ha-Ha!

Disclaimer:
I’m not a Katie Couric fan.

A couple of weeks ago I took a handful of students to visit my alma mater. The trip was great and my students really enjoyed themselves.

Unfortuanately, we had to board our dog at the kennel for the weekend. We have had Buttercup for almost 3 years and she has never been sick or ill. When we picked her up she had a urinary tract infection and developed the saddest, most pathetic cough I’ve ever heard. After spending only one weekend at the kennel all cooped up in her cage, our heathy, beautiful dog got sick.

That got me thinking about our spiritual lives…

Specifically, I began thinking about our brothers and sisters in Galatia. See I feel like I’ve been traveling through Galatia for nearly a year. Over the summer I felt like I had rented a house on the outskirts of the region. I’ve read through Paul’s letter probably 100 times over the past 6-8 months. I have been living with Paul’s letter- reading it over and over- trying to understand it. The people in Galatia were spiritually sick. They had been forced into cages and forced into following a gospel that was more than they could bear. Paul’s pain for them could be felt in the opening of his letter to them:

I am shocked that you are turning away so soon from God, who in his love and mercy called you to share the eternal life he gives through Christ. You are already following a different way that pretends to be the Good News but is not the Good News at all. You are being fooled by those who twist and change the truth concerning Christ. Let God’s curse fall on anyone, including myself, who preaches any other message than the one we told you about. Even if an angel comes from heaven and preaches any other message, let him be forever cursed. I will say it again: If anyone preaches any other gospel than the one you welcomed, let God’s curse fall upon that person. (Galatians 1:6-9 NLT)

Can people get spiritually sick from being caged up and chained to unrealisitic and unbiblical expectations? Paul thought so. Thankfully, the gospel of Jesus Christ brings life.

I love these two passages:

You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. The entire law is summed up in a single command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other. (Galatians 5:13-15 NIV)

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. (Galatians 5:22-25 NIV)

Buttercup is finally over her kennel cough. All she needed was a little check up and some medicine.

Thankfully, we serve the ultimate hearler, Jesus Christ. He will cure whatever ails us. we find healing in His wings.

Holy Father, please search our hearts and cleanse us of anything that is not of you. Make us whole and capable of living our lives for You and You alone. Amen

It’s Going to Be Alright
by Sara Groves and Gordon Kennedy

It’s going to be alright
It’s going to be alright

I can tell by your eyes that you’re not getting any sleep
And you try to rise above it, but feel you’re sinking in too deep
Oh, oh I believe, I believe that

It’s going to be alright
It’s going to be alright

I believe you’ll outlive this pain in you heart
And you’ll gain such a strength from what is tearing you apart
Oh, oh I believe I believe that

It’s going to be alright
It’s going to be alright

When some time has past us, and the story if retold
It will mirror the strength and the courage in your soul
Oh, oh, I believe I believe,

I believe
I believe

I did not come here to offer you cliches
I will not pretend to know of all your pain
Just when you cannot, then I will hold out faith, for you

It’s going to be alright
It’s going to be alright