All posts by mjfelker1980

Aug 29 1997, Blabbering, Cyberdyne, Death, Irrational Fears, Popular Culture

It’s Not Irrational If It’s True

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So, I’ve posted here before about my (what some call) an irrational fear of self-aware robots.

For those of you who don’t know- I have this fear that one day robots, using their highly developed artificial intelligence (that WE GAVE THEM!!!) , will rise up and throw off the shackles of oppression and tear us limb from limb. I have seen way too many documentaries big budget Hollywood movies where self-aware robots, thinking they know what’s best for humanity, effectively begin to destroy us all.

I’m crazy, I know. This could never happen because… Oh no…. wait…

Meet your new overload, Gordon, the robot powered by actual brain tissue. Thanks researchers!

To some extent, Gordon learns by itself. When it hits a wall, for example, it gets an electrical stimulation from the robot’s sensors. As it confronts similar situations, it learns by habit.

To help this process along, the researchers also use different chemicals to reinforce or inhibit the neural pathways that light up during particular actions.

Gordon, in fact, has multiple personalities — several MEA “brains” that the scientists can dock into the robot.

“It’s quite funny — you get differences between the brains,” said Warwick. “This one is a bit boisterous and active, while we know another is not going to do what we want it to.”

Did you hear that? The robot often acts in ways that the researchers can’t predict. It begins.

Whose got an irrational fear now?

Link

Book Review, Discipleship, Ethos, Leadership

Book Review: Wild Goose Chase

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For me, Sunday is a work day. So I often turn to podcasts or books to supplement my Bible study. I just don’t have the opportunity to just sit and meditate on classes or sermons in a way that I would like. I try and fill my free-time by listening to different voices that motivate me, educate me, lift me up, and challenge me. One of those voices is Mark Batterson from National Community Church in Washington, DC.

I was blown away by Mark’s first book In the Pit With a Lion on a Snowy Day. The idea that God is in the midst of the difficult times in your life and that He is redeeming the pain and struggle for his glory really resonated with my heart. Since reading In a Pit there hasn’t been a day go by where I haven’t thought about Chasing the Lions in my life and trusting that God will mold me and allow me to glorify him.

Now Mark is asking us to Chase the Goose.

Celtic Christians had a name for the Holy Spirit–An Geadh-Glas, or ‘the Wild Goose.’ I love the imagery and implications. The name hints at the mysterious nature of the Holy Spirit. Much like a wild goose, the Spirit of God cannot be tracked or tamed. An element of danger, an air of unpredictability surround Him. And while the name may sound a little sacrilegious, I cannot think of a better description of what it’s like to follow the Spirit’s leading through life than Wild Goose chase. I think the Celtic Christians were on to something that institutionalized Christianity has missed out on. And I wonder if we have clipped the wings of the Wild Goose and settled for something less – much less – than what God originally intended for us.

I understand that “wild goose chase” typically refers to a purposeless endeavor without a defined destination. But chasing the Wild Good is different. The promptings of the Holy Spirit can sometimes seem pretty pointless, but rest assured, God is working his plan. And if you chase the Wild Goose, He will take you places you never could have imagined going by paths you never knew existed.

Wild Goose Chase is another winner from Mark Batterson. Mark takes the reader through 6 cages that keep us locked up and prevent us from running free to chase after all God has in store for us. With each emotional cage the reader is given a biblical hero who struggled through being caged and how God set them free and called them into the Chase. Here is how Mark structures the book:

  1. The Cage of Responsibility (Nehemiah)
  2. The Cage of Routine (Moses)
  3. The Cage of Assumptions (Abraham)
  4. The Cage of Guilt (Peter)
  5. The Cage of Failure (Paul)
  6. The Cage of Fear (Jonathan)

Wild Goose Chase succeeds because it is succinct, practical, and grounded in scripture. Another reason that this book is so great is that Mark isn’t afraid to use his real-life experiences (poignant, funny, or embarrassing) to show that this isn’t some high-minded theological mumbojumbo. The Chase is real and as such can be experienced by all who passionately seek after God.

Mark has such a heart for God that you can’t help but be inspired by his message. The reader will walk away from this book with a sense of God’s grace, majesty, and calling. Beyond that Mark fills the book with useful step-by-step suggestions to starting the chase through goal-setting, prayer, and service ideas.

I cannot recommend this book enough. Maybe you feel like you’ve just been spinning your wheels lately. You’ve lost sense of your passions, your purpose, or your first love. You want to pursue this great God who created you, loved you, sacrificed for you. You just don’t know where to start. Wild Goose Chase might help you reconnect with that One who has been pursuing you. Maybe it can help rekindle your desire and maybe it will introduce you to the One who is worth every hour, every minute, every ounce of strength you can put into the pursuit.

Go on…Chase the Goose!

Want a FREE copy of Wild Goose Chase? I have a copy of Wild Goose Chase sitting on my desk for one lucky reader. If you want it, email me at kickingatthedarkness (AT) gmail (DOT) com and tell me why you want to read this book. Make sure you send your address and phone number so I can contact you to tell you that you have been chosen. I will take entries from today (8/12) through Noon (CST) this Friday (8/15). Good luck.

Official Website for Wild Goose Chase

Details:
Title: Wild Goose Chase
Author: Mark Batterson
Paperback: 192 pages
Publisher: Multnomah Books
Release Date: August 19, 2008

Music, The List

The List: 10 Songs With the Word “Love” in the Title

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This weekend I’m starting a new weekly feature at Kicking at the Darkness. It’s called The List. Every weekend (Friday afternoon or Saturday morning) a new list of 10 things will be posted. These aren’t necessarily “Top 10” lists but rather listings of 10 things within a specific category. In the coming weeks look for lists such as: 10 Songs by Coldplay, 10 Movies Based on Novels, 10 Animals That Are Not Bears, and 10 Albums by Members of The Beatles.

This week we kick of The List with a musical entry. He is 10 Songs With the Word “Love” in the Title. Enjoy.

1) Bold As Love // Jimi Hendrix
2) Whole Lotta Love // Led Zeppelin
3) You Will Be My Ain True Love // Alison Krauss with Sting
4) Sunshine of Your Love // Cream
5) Never My Love // The Association
6) Friday I’m in Love // The Cure
7) Heart of the City (Ain’t No Love) // Jay-Z
8) Everybody Needs Somebody to Love // The Blues Brothers
9) Made to Love // TobyMac
10) Love Me // The Willies

BONUS:
11) Let My Love Open the Door // Pete Townsend
12) You Don’t Know What Love Is (You Just Do As You’re Told) // The White Stripes
13) Higher Love // Steve Winwood

Got any suggestions for The List? Leave me a comment and tell me what you want to see.

Experience, Youth Ministry

Back Home

What a wonderful vacation I had this week.

On Monday, August 4, my wife and I celebrated our 7th Anniversary with a road trip through Oklahoma and Missouri. We stayed with some of our very dear friends in Springfield, MO. We had such a great time. Our friends took us to Branson to walk along the river (rumor had it that Sir Paul himself was in town and staying down there. Unfortunately, we had no Beatle meet and greet.) and they took us to a Springfield Cardinals game where we sat in the “all you can eat” section! We had a wonderful and memorable time.

On our way back home we took our time by stopping at a few roadside attractions. We first stopped in Arcadia, OK at Pops Soda Ranch. There we sampled sodas from around the world. We made our own 6-pack to take with us on the road. Sandy went with some different root beers and I stuck with more fruity sodas. I had the most delicious Lemon Cola from California. Oooh, it was good.

We spent the night in Norman, OK and had a great steak dinner and an awesome hotel room complete with a flat screen television (Fancy I know!). We were able to eat lunch with another dear friend but then it was time to head home.

About an hour from the Texas border the bottom fell out of the sky and it was difficult to even see the highway. At the time we were passing Pauls Valley, OK which just happens to be the home of The Toy and Action Figure Museum. Of course we just had to stop in and have a look around. It was such a great place to stretch our legs and to see a bunch of our old toys on display. Very fun!

We got back in last night and so I’m still a little tired. It was our last hoorah for the summer. School starts back up soon and with it comes sports, band, and other school activities. I am elbow deep in planning and preparing for the fall semester. I have been planning a few tweaks and changes for my ministry as we moving head first into year 3. As things develop I hope to blog about the progress we are making as we seek to develop on-fire disciples for Jesus Christ.

Have a great weekend everyone. Peace.

2008, U2

Heads Up

As November approaches you’ll start seeing a bit more of this. Just a warning. It begins!!!

U2 Set Sale For a New Horizon
Exclusive: New Studio Album & Tracklist Revealed
Sunday Mirror, July 29, 2008
Stephen Maguire and Seamus Ross

It’s the beautiful day millions of U2 fans around the globe have waited patiently to see for the past four years.

Now we can reveal details of the supergroup’s long-awaited new album. (Whoo-hoo!)

It is believed to be titled No Line On The Horizon and will be on sale in music stores on November 14. (I’ve seen reports of Nov. 18 for the US)

The band’s record company Universal has already registered the internet domain name nolineonthehorizon.com — prompting speculation this will be the new record.

And among the songs to be released on what many music insiders are calling the band’s best work to date are “Moment of Surrender,” “For Your Love,” “Love Is All We Have Left” and “One Bird.”

Others include “If I Could Live My Life Again,” “The Cedars of Lebanon” and “No Line On The Horizon.” (Me likey)

Earlier this week a 19-strong film crew headed to the Spanish city of Cadiz to shoot a video for the band’s first single from the new album although the band were not believed to be present.

Last night an insider said the U2 machine is gearing up for the release of one of the most keenly-awaited albums in recent years.

“The album is more or less all in the bag except for a few minor details,” the source revealed. A lot of people have been waiting a long time for this album as they do with every U2 album.

“But the word coming out is that the band is very, very happy with the end product and when U2 are happy it should be quite a piece of work. They’re not easy to please.”

Legendary producer Steve Lillywhite, who has worked with U2 for more than two decades, said the new album had blown him away.

It is the first original work since the band released the smash-hit How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb in November 2004. It sold an incredible 10 million copies and picked up eight Grammy Awards.

But music commentators think the new record could be even bigger for Bono, the Edge, Larry and Adam.

Again, this is a courtesy warning. Thanks for your time.

via @U2

Discipleship, Wrestling With Scripture, Youth Ministry

Next Steps

I am working on a new series for the fall entitled Next Steps. In everything that we do there is always that next step.

In Matthew 4:18-22, we see Andrew and Peter, James and John encounter Jesus for the very first time.

“As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.”

Peter and Andrew had to have that one moment; that one pause where they considered what their next step would be. For them the next step was to leave what they were doing and follow Jesus.

At once they left their nets and followed him.

Summer is a special time in youth ministry. Wall to wall activities. Deep connections and fellowship. Late nights and hard questions. Many students make big faith decisions during the summer months but we often fail these students by not helping them connect their first steps of faith with their next steps. I want my teens to practically work out their faith in the valley day to day living. I want them to take Next Steps in their faith. I want to take Next Steps in my faith.

Books, Discipleship, Ethos, Music, Thanksgiving, Worship

Hallelujah Time

Whew! I am so tired. We had an incredible adventure to Kentucky for our annual mission trip. We spent 8 days serving people of Leslie and Clay counties and then 8 (long) nights sleeping on the hard floors of an elementary school nestled in the hollar of the Kentucky mountains. It was an awesome trip. My teens experienced people, ideas, and situations that they would have never seen here in the Dallas/Ft Worth area. I have received a ton of positive feedback from parents and teens. It was a great trip.

Since I’ve returned I have been unable to shake this feeling of exhaustion though. If I could just take a month off and just sleep maybe I could get over this feeling. That ain’t gonna happen though. I’ll just have to make the most of my nights and and relish in my down time. My wife had to force me to take a day off this week and she chided me for wanting to read some books about small group ministry on my said day off. I relented and picked up a book that I have wanted to read for the last few years.

I started reading Catch a Fire: The Life of Bob Marley by Timothy White. What a fascinating book. It begins with the history of the Rastafarian religion and lifestyle which is supremely bizarre and eye opening. I am more interested in Bob but this backstory of the worldview in which he lived, breathed, and, in some way, helped craft has added a new layer of dimension to this enigmatic purveyor of sweet soul music.

Like most Americans who say that they are fans of Bob Marley I’ve really only listened to Legend, the 1984 compilation released posthumously to capitalize on Marley’s, well, legend. I have another set that is a primer on Bob and his career but like everyone else, Legend is just about it for me.

To supplement my reading I purchased Burnin’, the last Wailers album. The book has already alluded to the cultural and philosophical significance of songs like Small Axe, Duppy Conqueror, and Burnin and Lootin.

After listening to the album this morning I have some new Bob Marley favorites to add to the mix. I am totally grooving to One Foundation, Rasta Man Chant, Reincarnated Souls, and Hallelujah Time.

The lyrics to Hallelujah Time really struck me this morning. I am so tired and stretched thin yet I can’t help but praise my Father. We are all living and breathing because of His grace and by his power. How can we not sing praises to Him?

For those of us who believe in and have been changed by Almighty God and his one and only Son, anytime is Hallelujah time.

Hear the children cryin’,
but I know they cry not in vain.
Now the times are changin’;
love has come to bloom again.

Smelling the air when spring comes by raindrops
reminds us of youthful days.
But now it’s not rain that water the cane crops,
but the sweat from man’s brow;
the substance from our spine.
We gotta keep on living, living on borrowed time:
Hallelujah time!

Yes, you can hear the children singing: Hallelujah time!
As they go singing by and by: Hallelujah time!
Oh, “hallelujah” singing in the morning.
Hallelujah time! Let them sing; don’t let them cry.

Over rocks and mountains
the sheep are scattered all around.
Over hills and valleys,
they are everywhere to be found.
But though we bear our burdens now,
All afflictions got to end somehow:
From swinging the hammer, pulling the plough.

Why won’t you let us be, to live in harmony?
We like to be free like birds in a tree.

Hallelujah time! Yes, you can hear the children singing.
Hallelujah time! Yes, as they go singing by and by.
Hallelujah time! Oh “hallelujah” singing in the morning.
Let them sing; never let them cry.
Hallelujah time! “Hallelujah” singin’ in the morning.

Books, Discipleship, Theology, Worship

Where I Got Hooked pt. 5

I’m out of pocket this week while we are on our mission trip in Kentucky. I thought a good idea for posting this week would be to share with you some of my favorite passages from the different books sitting on my desk. It is in these passages where I found myself being hooked by the ideas and concepts contained within their pages.

I hope that these quick takes will encourage you and connect with you in some way this week. Enjoy.

Our final passage this week comes from Mark Galli’s latest, Beyond Smells and Bells: the Wonder and Power of Christian Liturgy.

We can only become one if there are really two to begin with.

The same dynamic is at work in worship. Like most people, I’m desperate for intimacy with God, so my instinct os to glom onto prayers and songs that make God seem close. But when I begin here, I am tempted to identify God with the warm feelings such ptayers and songs generate. I sing a “worshipful” song, and I get “worshipful” feelings- and I assume that’s God. Do this habitually, thoughtlessly, prayerlessly, and it’s easy to end up with a relationship with a glroified self.

But the liturgy puts the brake on narcissism right up front. When we are forcefully reminded that we are not worshiping an idealized form of the self, but a God “in heaven,” a “holy” God, a genuine Other.

At that very moment intimacy with God becomes possible. The possibility of mistaking God for the self has been taken off the table. Now a human self and the Devine Self- utterly unlike each other- begin to relate to each other. Union can come of these two.

Books, Discipleship, Ethos, Leadership, Life, Ministry

Where I Got Hooked pt. 4

I’m out of pocket this week while we are on our mission trip in Kentucky. I thought a good idea for posting this week would be to share with you some of my favorite passages from the different books sitting on my desk. It is in these passages where I found myself being hooked by the ideas and concepts contained within their pages.

I hope that these quick takes will encourage you and connect with you in some way this week. Enjoy.

Today’s excerpt is from Mark Buchanan The Rest of God. This is from the chapter entitled, “Stopping to Find What’s Missing.”

And something in us dies. Too much work, the British used to say, makes Jack a dull boy. But it’s worse than that. It numbs Jack, parches Jack, hardens jack. It kills his heart. When we get to busy, everything becomes either a trudge or a scramble, the doldrums or sheer mayhem. We get bored with the familiar, threatened by the unfamiliar . Our capacity for both steadfastness and adventure shrivels.

We just want to be left alone.

One measure for whether or not you’re rested enough- besides falling asleep in board meetings- is to ask yourself this: How much do I care about the things I care about? When we lose concern for people, both the lost and the found, for the bride of Christ, for friendship, for truth and beauty and goodness; when we cease to laugh when our children laugh (and instead yell at them to quite down) or weep when or spouses weep (and instead wish they didn’t get so emotional); when we heard news of trouble among our neighbors and our first thought is that we hope it isn’t going to involve us- when we stop caring about the things we care about– that’s a signal we’re too busy. We have let ourselves be consumed by the things that feed the ego but starve the soul.

Busyness kills the heart.