gathering in light

I decided to take part in Brent Bill’s recent contest to help get the word out about his book. I know Brent through my work with convergent Friends and have enjoyed following his blog and his interest not only in Quakerism but the emerging church. He is the author of a number of books and has a new book releasing this month called “Sacred Compass” from Paraclete Press. Here’s the basic premise of the book:

A compass makes a good metaphor for our spiritual lives and the work of discerning God’s will for them. God doesn’t speak as clearly and as obviously asMapquest or GoogleMaps or GPS. Maybe that’s because we don’t navigate the life of faith via anything remotely resembling GPS. Instead, the divine compass points us the mind and love of God. Our sacred compass operates in our souls and calls us to life with God. As we move toward Divine guidance, we joyfully behold the face of a loving God gazing back at us. 

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Henry Jenkins, a teacher, author and cultural studies scholar at MIT, has written a really thought-provoking post on a number of reasons why academics should blog. I found the essay helpful in framing different scenarios and purposes for a blog done by a students and faculty members. But I’dsay it’s good even for people who are interested in developing their skills as thinkers and writers outside the academy.

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 As you know I’m interested in the environment and how our everyday practices impact it, so I’m always happy to see more people trying to raise awareness through creative means. A friend sent this link around the other day urging us to take the 20 minutes and watch the video. I’m going to do the same thing here.  Please, take a look at this video, watch it while you eat breakfast or watch it instead of your evening show, but really you’ll enjoy it, learn from it and be challenged by it. I know I was. I like the fact that its really well done, Annie, the host doesn’t brow beat anyone, she’s candid, has her facts straight and uses some fun and creative animation to help tell her story. Her story has a little more teeth to it than other enviro-films, in that she tackles production, marketing, consumption, waste as well as the politics behind this stuff. Here’s a teaser: [Read more]

Jesus Manifesto has posted a writing contest that I think some of you may want to know about, it sounds pretty interesting:

We want your words. Jesus Manifesto is inviting you to submit an original article exploring the theme of Pentecost. In particular we want you to explore the theme of Pentecost in light of the world’s struggles. In the so-called “first� world, Christendom is fading into memory. In the so-called “third� world, new religious realities are emerging as Pentecostalism, Catholicism, and Islam compete for souls. Meanwhile, our world is growing increasingly diverse as immigration patterns and globalization intensify both the interconnectedness and the fractured-ness of our world. Ours is a world where urban poor in US cities carry cell phones while urban poor in other cities live amidst disease and intractability.

(From Stepping into the Wind: A Pentecost-Inspired Writing Competition : Jesus Manifesto)

 

A friend of mine and regular reader and commenter on this blog is about to enter seminary at Gordon-Conwell this fall. I wanted to send her a list of books for some good pre-seminary summer reading. I tried to think of interesting books that will be somewhat challenging, offer new vocabulary that will help in seminary, shape ideas about theology and the church. Plus they’re books that I find just exciting to read. I also wanted big picture books, not with actual pictures (who ever heard of such a thing?!), but books that can help get a little bit of perspective over what’s going on in the culture and church. The first five, are the five picks I sent to my friend, the next few are really good and if you have the extra time they should be read. [Read more]

Here’s a great piece by literary critic Stanley Fish, over at his New York Times blog “Think Again,” who offers brief history in the coming to America of French Theory (and namely deconstruction). Here’s a couple quotes I like from the post:

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If you ever get the chance to sit in on a silent Quaker meeting, take the opportunity. It’s not the kind of experience you’ll get just anywhere. Yes, it’s intense. Yes, it’s likely to be extremely difficult to “center down” and focus for an hour, but it’d still be a great exercise in listening. When I see conversations geared to listening, I automatically think of the Quaker tradition. What better group of people to turn to for advice about how to listen? When Quakers meet for worship they reserve a time during the service for complete silence; this silence is a commitment as a community to allowing God space in our worship. But it is rarely ever a “silent worship.” Rather, in worship Quakers listen for the Holy Spirit to move them to action. That is, if the Spirt of God moves you to share/preach/sing, then listening to God involves acting on what was heard. In this way, the practice of silence for Quakers only begins with listening, but true silence always leads to an action. [Read more]

The President of Fuller (where I attend) had this to say about the need for for charity among Evangelicals in a recent article he wrote for Christianity Today.

In a speech I heard several years ago, the Japanese-American theologian Kosuke Koyama put it nicely: We all have to decide, he said, whether we have a generous God or a stingy God. And the truth is that we evangelicals often give the impression that we have decided to be a spiritually stingy people. A recent Barna Group survey, for example, offers evidence that many young people in the larger society think of evangelicals primarily as “judgmental” types, hostile toward folks in other religions and mean-spirited in our attitudes about homosexuality. Even many young evangelicals share some of these assessments of the older generation. A leader at an evangelical college said it this way: “A lot of our students worry about typical evangelical attitudes toward people who have different belief systems and lifestyles. It’s not that they don’t take the Bible’s teachings seriously. It’s just that they have gotten to know Muslims and gays, and they are embarrassed by the harsh spirit toward such folks that they see in the older generation. If we don’t do something about this negative image soon, we could easily lose them for the evangelical cause.”

(From An Open-Handed Gospel | Christianity Today | A Magazine of Evangelical Conviction)