Wondering Thoughts

"Aftermath" John Henson

Day of Pentecost, 2009, Crossings Service

Hugging Is New Handshake

I have mentioned publicly before my aversion to hugging.  It is really more that I am accustomed to a handshake and never comfortable about the rules of hugging.  A handshake was always the way of greeting in my family, with roots in West Texas/Panhandle firm handshakes.  My dad has one of the best handshakes in the world. 

The NY Times article below describes the new sociological phenom how hugs are replacing the handshake for teenagers. 


Parents, who grew up in a generation more likely to use the handshake, the low-five or the high-five, are often baffled by the close physical contact. “It’s a wordless custom, from what I’ve observed,” wrote Beth J. Harpaz, the mother of two boys, 11 and 16, and a parenting columnist for The Associated Press, in a new book, “13 Is the New 18.”

For Teenagers, Hello Means ‘How About a Hug?’ - NYTimes.com

Technorati Tags: hugging, teenagers

I've been wondering about this

blog: Is Kindle Hurting Barnes & Noble’s Web Sales? http://tinyurl.com/ot6l8c #kindle

http://twitter.com/e_reading/status/1930775289

My kindle is keeping me out of the store some, but I still like to stroll through and see what looks good. I can then push a button to download the book for less than $10.

On Way

Watching wind in trees
God-motions tangibly seen
Outdoor cathedral

Tutu Haiku

Words aren't shaping easily

Telling of man put by God

Freeing non-violently

Picture not mine, but found here.

It was incredible being in same room with such a historic figure for equality, justice; a true Nobel Peace laureate. The most moving moment is when he led all 1600 of us preachers in an acapella Amen chorus to finish the night. Great night at Festival of Homiletics.

"More To Love" John Henson

6th Sunday of Easter, Sanctuary Service, John Henson, John 15:9-19

GTD Guru David Allen Re: Young Gens and Meaning

I am a GTD (getting things done) fan and love to hear or its architect David Allen.  He is now writing for Wired (you can also follow him now on twitter as gtdguy), as can be read below:

The current younger generation (what are they – Gen Zs? Have the Gen Double-As hatched yet?) are touted as the ADHDers – constantly in hyperengagement mode. Through an “adult” lens you can see a culture with little stable thinking, no sustained focus and minimal intelligent reflection. Much ado about nothing, rapidly. It can easily seem to be one of those handbaskets the world goes to Hell in, episode 437.

Read rest of article here:

David Allen: How to be creative amid chaos .

ReJesus Review

I finished ReJesus: A Wild Messiah For A Missional Church recently and find myself coming back to it in my thoughts and in the various conversations I have throughout a given week.  If you are one of those I've referred to the book, I hope you picked up a copy (or, for Kindle readers, downloaded a copy in the promised 2 minutes) and are finding it to be as stimulating a read as I have.

I am recommending the book for various reasons, as it comes at a time when reports like the American Religious Identification Survey are coming out and when national magazines like Newsweek are running articles with titles like, "The End of Christian America."  I believe this book is provocative enough to spur Christians on in this day and time to ReJesus in order to reengage the culture and world of today.

Before moving on, what the authors, Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch, propose is that the church of today begin removing all of the debris added on to the Gospel since the birth of the church.  I underlined the authors' stated mission at the beginning of the book to see if they could actually go beyond so many other authors' attempts to take us back to first century Christianity.  What Frost and Hirsch state as their core task of the book is to:

explore the connection between the way of Jesus and the religion of Christianity . . . to attempt to assess the Christian movement in the light of the biblical revelation of Jesus and to propose ways in which the church might reconfigure itself, indeed, recalibrate its mission around the example and teaching of the radical rabbi from Nazareth.

The authors thoughtfully lay out a way of exploration, by doing things like repenting from missing the point of Jesus, by reconsidering the Shema in Jesus' understanding and teaching, by getting back into direct contact with Jesus through the disciplines of our faith, and, by revisiting how Jesus built community. 

But, my favorite, way to ReJesus is to seek out a new picture of Jesus.  One of my favorite sermon series I try to update every other year or so is Pictures of Jesus.  I begin the series with images of Jesus I've collected as an intro to getting people to take a new look at Jesus.  Cole and Hirsch effectively to continue expanding my view and reminded me that there are many angles from which to look at Jesus--even one they refer to as the "bearded-lady Jesus."  They also made me think of how our ecclesiology and theology so closely follow whatever image we carry of Jesus. 

Cole and Hirsch have put together a compelling work here, though there are places--like in the chapter on the Shema and thoughts relating to oneness/Trinity of God as well as a quick dismissal of form criticism without stating what can be learned from it in a study of Jesus ( one of my favorite books is The Meaning of Jesus, by Marcus Borg and N.T. Wright, which compares/contrasts these views)--that could use some refining and elaboration. They correctly maintain focus on Jesus throughout the book; believing that the way ahead for the church in our world of today is by looking back to the one who started it all.  They leave the study of Jesus up to the reader rather than providing their presentation--or favorite picture--of him.  Their point--the missional movement of the church is to be anchored not in "bearded-lady Jesus," but the wild messiah we find in the Gospels--is well-given and, as we see the church becoming more irrelevant to the world around her--must be well-taken.

CBF at Work--this story makes my day

I had a great time seeing progress with work in Lake Providence this past Saturday.  I couldn't get there until Saturday and am sorry I missed the football clinic mentioned below.  It is amazing to see how the vision of a few people like Kyle Kelley is taking shape in one of the poorest parishes/counties in the nation. 

Buffaloes Unify Lake Providence

The Buffaloes football coaching staff reached out and touched a
community, a community experiencing a great divide. It was said by a
person observing the clinic from the sidelines that this was the first
time in Lake Providence that a town was unified by an event such as
the football clinic for two high school football programs.  Briarfield
Academy is the private high school in Lake Providence.  Lake
Providence High School is the other high school in the small town.
The two schools are divided by railroad tracks.  You get the picture
that I am trying to paint.  But all of that history was put to rest on
Friday.  Briarfield Academy crossed the tracks and came over to work
out with Lake Providence High School in what is hoped to be the 1st
Annual ABC Buffaloes Football Fundamentals Camp.

A few weeks ago, Coach Richard Wilson and his staff agreed to take on
the challenge of building unity through a football clinic for both
teams.  It was indeed a success.  For two hours the teams came
together to work on football fundamentals.  If you didn't know any
differently, you would have thought that this was at least the fifth
practice because it was well organized and the young men worked very
well together.  Sports has a way of bringing different people
together.  NFL great quarterback, Bert Jones worked with the
quarterbacks and also talked to the student-athletes about working
hard in the off season.

This event was organized by the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of
Louisiana in partnership with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of
Arkansas.  Last year, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Arkansas
relocated their state headquarters from west Little Rock to the campus
of Arkansas Baptist College.

After the football clinic, the teams ate and worshipped together at
Lake Providence High School.  President of ABC, Fitz Hill spoke to the
teams and several members of the community in the school's auditorium
about being courageous and stepping outside your comfort zone inside
your local community. He stressed getting to know your neighbors,
explaining that strength is in unity not individualism.

At the conclusion of the community rally, the Cooperative Baptist
Fellowship of Louisiana announced that they will start an annual
scholarship for one student from Lake Providence to attend ABC.  It
was truly a blessed day for everyone involved.

For more about what's happening there, visit the CBF-LA site.

From:
--
Kyle Kelley
Associate Coordinator
Louisiana Cooperative Baptist Fellowship
cbflouisiana@gmail.com
318-780-4127

Post of Sunday's sermon "Starting An Uproar"

"Starting an Uproar" from john henson on Vimeo.