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| It is no secret that MTV has made it a practice to push the envelope whenever possible. With that in mind - I am usually never shocked at what they crap out on live television during these award shows. However this year - they successfully turned my stomach. The crudeness of the dialogue this year was the worst ever with Sarah Silverman at the helm. That was bad - but the worst part was the award they gave to an amateur film-maker who did a SPOOF of the movie United 93! They celebrated and awarded a film that trivialized the worst national disaster in our nation's history, 9-11, and made light of the heroes of that tragic flight and of their horrible deaths. How do you SPOOF that? There is no doubt that MTV and Viacom do their homework and are the premier experts on younger generations. They have their loyalty as they had mine in the 80's when they put that first moon-man on screen. My question now is WHY? Why does a company who cares NOTHING about how they are contributing to the coarsening of our culture and cares NOTHING about how they are helping to corrupt the world-views of each generation - still have our dollars and loyalty? There is a great documentary on MTV called "The Merchants of Cool" that is from a few years back but gives a great honest look at how this thing works. Watch it online at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/cool/view/ | | |
| I came across the quote in Relevant magazine from Mark Driscoll who is the pastor of Mars Hill church and Seattle and it has been rolling in my head for some days now. I wanted to throw it out here to see if it resonated with any of you guys. Read and comment! Question: WHat do you see as the greatest challenge for young Christians in the next 10 years? "There is a strong drift towards the hard theological left. Some emergent types want to recast Jesus as a limp-wrist hippie in a dress with a lot of product in his hair, who drank decaf and made pithy Zen statements about life while shopping for the perfect pair of shoes. In Revelation, Jesus is a pride fighter with a tattoo down His leg, a sword in His hand and the commitment to make someone bleed. That is a guy I can worship. I cannot worship the hippie, diaper, halo Christ because I cannot worship a guy I can beat up. I fear some are becoming more cultural than Christian, and without a big Jesus who has authority and hates sin as revealed in the Bible, we will have less and less Christians, and more and more confused, spiritually self-righteous blogger critics of Christianity." Any thoughts? By the way - great article in the Jan-Feb issue of Relevant . 7 Big Questions for today's church leaders. | | |
| As a stanger in the strange land of North Carolina, I have heard rumors of massive temples where young college students and the locals gather. They gather to honor a ritualistic game with 2 hoops and 1 bouncy ball. I made my first of (i am sure)many journeys to one of these temples - the one called "The Dean Dome" This impressive structure housed thousands of locals all wearing baby blue clothing -of which I stood out like a sore thumb with a bright orange button up! What a newbee! The ancient ritual was exciting as I was lucky enough to have courtside seats. The Tar Heels and the Wolfpack battled it out with the baby blue tribe victorious. Wow - what an education I have recieved in this new land of ACC tribalism. For someone who religously pays homage to the funny shaped pigskin every fall - I guess I have something else to look forward to once that season is over every year.  | | |
| Well -after a couple of weeks settlin in - I start my first teaching series here with this new great group of students! I am really excited - things have been good - the senior pastor (bob) has been on a series called "Birthmarks" which has been all about communicating the values of st marks church. http://www.stmarkschurch.org/message-archive/default.asp It has been good for sarah and I to get in on that during our first couple of weeks. I helped serve communion for the first time here as well today which was a great experience. Even though most people in the church are still strangers to me - when you take communion with them - even though you do not know their name - you still have a sense of being family - which of course we are. Cool thing. | | |
| Sarah and I are living in a world of carboard boxes and utter chaos as we try to sort out our belongings in our new home. We took the kids to their new school today and you could see the anxiety on their little faces as they experienced the uncertainty of strange places, strange hallways, strange teachers, and strange kids. I am trying my best to put myself in their shoes as to what it must be like to be a little 6 year or 9 year old going to a new school. Then I think - hey - I felt the same thing today (on an adult level of course) but still all real - fears and anxiety about my first day today at St Marks. New people, new office, new leaders, new pastor, new expectations, etc... As I was laying on the bed with the girls tonight reading bed time stories and listening to them tell me about their school - I was amazed at even though they are kids and I am "grown up" (some would argue not) - we are still dealing with the same fears and emotions with this move. I made an honest attempt to help them find the adventure and excitement within their first day and to convince them that everything was going to be fine - But I had to wonder who I was really trying to convince...me or them | | |
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