Contemporary yet scriptural, dear reader, I give you TyTe and The Beatbox Nativity.
and, for those who like their greatest story ever told live and unplugged, the Nativity Rap live and on location.
TyTe (aka The Reverend Tyte) is a vicar at Uplyme Church in England and was a professional beatboxer before being ordained seven years ago.
It’s not what you do that scares me, it’s what you hide is a fine example of why I continue to read – and be challenged by – Donald Miller writes.
picture props: austinwoods14
“Simply arrange with God ahead of time that when you recite the prayer macro, it will be understood as a recitation of the longer prayer in full.”
A great morning coffee splutter from the funny if not quite scriptural Achieving spiritual efficiency through prayer macros.
(Hat tip to Tony Jones.)
A little light web wandering this evening brought me to this pointed observation by Scott Paeth.
“It’s always instructive to see how religious heirarchies are likely to respond to movements for social change. Religion is often, though not always, a conservative force in society, so that militates against the possibility of Anglican officialdom siding with the Occupy movement. But beyond that, it seems that religious leaders only really start to lead when they’re forced to follow the most radical implications of their traditions. And it’s fortunate that there are many Christians in the square outside St. Paul’s who are more than happy to remind the men in the great big building behind them that the building itself was erected in honor of a man who overturned the tables at the temple, who preached good news for the poor, and who died horribly at the hands of the representatives of the official party line.”
If you click through, do listen to the excellent Woody Guthrie track embedded in the same post.
This American Life is rarely less than great and this old episode from 2003, featuring the marvelous words of Michael Bernard Loggins, is no exception.
Catching up on my blog reading, I clicked through Dave Funkypancake’s pictures to find one of me, enjoying myself at the afternoon tea celebrating the Funkypancake family’s first year in New Zealand. Nothing remarkable in that, save to say that it was nice to note that the photo was in Dave’s ‘friends’ category and I am glad to have him as my friend.
Isn’t it funny how our self-reliance and self-centredness so easily convinces us that we’re the only one that feels a particular way when all along there are many, including those close to us, who feel the same or share the same concerns?
Having been enlightened by Tony and Felicity Dale’s Simply Church, I have spent a week or two processing my reactions to the politics and demands of denominational church and how it affects my behaviour and feelings. After a year of scratching this particular itch, I am now aware that I am not the only one feeling this way and can now see more and more people are seeking a more authentic expression of their faith.
Reading further on simple faith, I am drawing some comfort and much inspiration from Marcus Borg’s Reading The Bible Again for the First Time, finding it to be a serious, cogent and scholarly examination of the scriptural literalism that I find so hard to process intellectually. Likewise, I have been similarly intrigued by the simplicity of the The Church of Two concept which, in its simplest form, is about two people practising two spriritual disciplines and sharing together daily. From the stories posted at LK10 resources, Stories From The Revolution and The Scilla Blog amongst other places, it seems like this practise is helping folk to deepen friendships, get closer to their families and initiate postive change in their lives.
I mentioned CO2 to the three guys I meet with weekly with a view to taking things up a notch between our weekly catch-ups. As a result, I have swapped a couple of emails and calls with one of them by way of a gentle try-out and we intend to explore it as a group. Then, at the end of the Sunday service, our youth pastor was prompted to speak on our need to been more immediate and authentic with each other. Rightly calling us to reflect on dashing off from church the second the service is over or remaining only to swap snippets of news over coffee after the service, he asked why we don’t stay and share the deeper fellowship we so easily speak about but rarely practice.
In the discussion that followed, I shared a little about my recent journeying and CO2, while others spoke of seeking more connection and relationship, rather than religion and ‘church’. After praying for a couple who are leading a youth mission to the US to work at The Dream Center in the weeks to come, we parted with a commitment to make small but intentional changes to support one another better.
Elsewhere, we have been trying to be a little more intentional and missional in our lives. One way of doing this has been our Tuesday night pot luck dinners where we open our home to all comers for a few hours, with the only aim being to share food and friendship with whoever steps across the threshold. While far from a new idea, we felt this was a solid and sustainable way to get alongside others on a more regular basis.
On the first Tuesday, no-one came. We sat around the table eating our meal and feeling a little deflated that nobody had taken up the invitation. On reflection, this was a good thing and perhaps challenged us on our motives and ensured our hearts were in the right place. Last week, with our expectations adjusted and hearts humbled, we were blessed to see another family of six and two couples join us at the table for what was a lovely evening of simply fellowship. The eight kids wolfed their food and were soon engrossed in a variety of games, while the eight grown-ups shared freely and laughed heartily for a couple of hours. With today being Tuesday, it’ll be interesting to see who, if indeed anyone, joins us in half an hour’s time.
In Bob Goff Turns the Idea of Charity Upside Down, a guest post on Donald Miller’s blog, Justin Zoradi gives us cause to reflect on our attitude to giving and charity. Subverting the usual story of us giving to them, the post describes how former child soldiers in Uganda decided to donate some of the profits of their project to benefit Miller’s The Mentoring Project. After reading the short post and checking out the project’s website, take a few minutes to think about how this challenges our fundamental view of ourselves as donors and the effects of our charitable giving.
Dear Kristine Elizabeth Hoffman
I love the occasional and unintended glimpses of other people’s lives that I find in the second hand books I read. I have been idly wondering about how many degrees, in this internet-connected global village of ours, separate two complete strangers whose only connection is a paperback book. For instance, take the book above, Anne Lamott’s Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith. It was one of three I received as a birthday gift a few weeks back, purchased by my wife in New Zealand over the internet from a secondhand bookseller in the US via the Amazon website and shipped via a friend’s address in the UK.
Why am I telling you this? Because earlier today, halfway through chapter twelve, I came across a Delta boarding pass with your name on it. This, together with the window sticker that dropped from between the last few pages when I first opened the book a week or so ago, is the just sort of happenstance that intrigues me. Are you a die-hard Lamott fan or a first time reader? Are you strong in your faith or working through years of stuff like me? Do you ever wonder who else reads the books you read?
I’m no Sherlock Holmes but from the boarding pass it would seem that in late June. last year or the year before – the boarding pass is not yellowed or overly faded – you flew Delta between Salt Lake City and Atlanta. Did you fly as a crew member on standby? The pass is marked ‘NRSA’ which, Google tells me, stands for Non Revenue Space Available and means free seating for airline personnel and their family members. As for the ‘Montana Native’ sticker, who knows? Maybe you’re a native Montanan flight attendant who deadheaded out of Helena down to the Atlanta hub via Utah after an early summer family reunion.
Oh, I almost forgot to ask – do you wear Vera Wang perfume? I only ask because, when I checked the other two books, I found a ‘Bouquet’ perfume tester card wedged a third of the way through Grace (Eventually). There again, there is every chance that book is part of an entirely different person’s story.
Blessings and happy reading!
bnug