Faith Online

Here are the slides for the class I'm teaching on Christian Community Online.  I'd like to do more on this topic in the future...

Christian Community and the Internet

Michelle is on Facebook now.  She loves it!  Within a few weeks she's found nearly a hundred friends and is adding new ones each day.  It's her new (or is that "old"?) community.

It's got me thinking...and in fact I'm teaching a class on it this Sunday at church.  Can the Internet foster and sustain meaningful religious community?  I have a lot to say about this, and I'll post it here over the next few days.  But for starters, take a look at Chapter Six in this book, Religion Online (the link will take you to a preview of the text from Google books.  You can read much of the book here for free).

King's Kamp...Captain's Log Videos

I was Dr. Spaceman at King's Kamp this year.  It was a blast.  Each day I created a "Captain's Log" video summarizing the events of the day before and highlighting tonight's activities.

Here's a sample...

King's Kamp - What we're up to

We had a great time at KK yesterday. We're all having a blast playing with old friends, making new ones, and enriching ourselves spiritually and physically.  There's something nearly magical in the power of the mountain forest to renew one's spirit.  I feel like whistling "Rocky Mountain High" all week! :-)

This year at Kamp we're all going different directions...

• Marcus - is pretty much the baby doll of the camp.  All the kids, counselors, and staff have adopted him and argue over who he is going to sit with at meals.  Today one of the staff saw him digging in the dirt and asked what he was doing.  When Marcus replied "digging for treasure", our friend Tom Black actually made a treasure chest, painted it gold, filled it with costume jewelry (gold and silver), and buried it.  Since Marcus discovered it, he's not put it down (or stopped talking about it).
• Madison - is a camper for the first time this year.  She's having a blast!  I see her only at meals.  The rest of the time she's out running around with her friends.  We're so happy about her cabin...they are all girls from our church.  She's the youngest of them, but she's fit right in and is having a blast.  We're so happy about that.  One of the reasons we went to Conejo was because there were no girls at our old church.  Now, two years later, Tiny is finally getting some strong relationships with the Conejo girls.
• Matthew - is, I believe, at camp this year.  I'm sure he rode up here with us on Sunday.  Since the time we arrived I've only seen him a couple of times.  Once, he asked me if I would be on his soccer team for the soccer tournament on Thursday.  "Oh, man.  I'm happy to.  But, I'm no good at soccer."  I told him.  He went back to his team and talked it over.  Later he came back and said, "I talked it over with my whole team, and we still want you on the team."  I felt really proud.  Inexplicably so.  As if I had somehow been weighed and counted "OK" on the scales of jr. high ratings.  Unfortunately, I'll probably blow the game winning goal or something.  Oh well.
• Michelle - is teaching 4 & 5th graders.  She's teaching with a young woman from the Smith family and seems to be having fun.  It's been so long since she's been in the classroom that she feels a bit rusty, but is doing a great job.  We're taking turns caring for Marcus while the other one works. 
• Me - I'm one of the "barn guys".  That means I'm one of the themed characters that guides the evening activities.  I'm working with another member of the Smith family, Tyler.  We're having a blast.  He's about 20 years old and full of energy.  We've got some awesome space suits (Thanks TOM!) and props, and we've adopted the personas of "Dr. Spaceman" and "Junior Spaceman" (pronounced Speh-Che'-Mun).  We're exploring the universe and bringing the knowledge of God to different planets each evening. 
  • Sunday - Planet Game-O-Tron
  • Monday - Planet Leadertron
  • Tuesday - Planet Nananananana
  • Wednesday - Planet Misbehavioron
  • Thursday - Mother ship for a send-off
  • Friday - Revisiting each planet to see how God has changed.

"I talked to my whole team, and we still want you on the team."

I'll post a few "Captain's Logs" on YouTube in the next few days.

King's Kamp Day One

  Today was Day One at KK 2008.  We left home about 7am and arrived at Idyllwild around 11 (with a stop for McGriddles on the way...btw...if you ever need to order a sausage McGriddle with cheese...forget about it.  It took them 7 minutes of trying different things on the computer to get it figured out.  Finally, I just said, "forget it!  Just give me a sausage, EGG, & cheese McGriddle and I'll remove the egg.  Of course, if you know Madison, you know she was not okay with that.  If an egg touched her McGriddle...).

Anyhow, we finally made it to Idyllwild and worked hard from 11 am to 11pm to get the camp ready, finish building the space ship (above) and devising a way to crash land the ship.  It was really tiring...but what fun. 

I'm Dr. Spaceman (Speh-che-mun) and my colleage Jr. Spaceman is helping me teach the people of this planet about God's will.  It's really fun.  Big props to the amazing crew that put this all together.

Providence in the Key of B

It was a pleasure to preach at my home church this week. I truly enjoy preaching a few times a year. Every week is pretty tough...but every six months is wonderful.

If you're interested, here's the text of my sermon. (Props to Ed for the great food for thought for this sermon).

King's Kamp 2007

We returned from King's Kamp today.  What a blast.  Michelle and I taught a class of 45 7th-graders.  We had a good-sized group of kids from Pepperdine, Conejo, University CoC and several other local SoCal churches.  It was so fun.  A few observations about King's Kamp...

• King's Kamp gives me hope for the future of the Church.  We had a group of wonderfully bright, good-hearted kids who were full of energy and joy in their passion for God. 
• King's Kamp is an encouraging movement forward for Churches of Christ.  The camp was focused on Christ-not dogma, was ecumenical for campers, staff & counselors, well-blended with a cappella and instrumental worship, more gender-inclusive than we have historically been, and fun for people from all backgrounds.
• King's Kamp is an amazing bit of coordination among volunteers from multiple Christian traditions, local churches, and dozens of volunteers.  It amazes me that so many volunteers can come together with so little formal structure to accomplish something so amazing.  I don't think my slideshow includes any photos of the amazing sets created for King's Kamp, but it was one of the most impressive volunteer productions I have ever seen.
• The community of volunteers at King's Kamp was most impressive.  Many of the men and women who run this camp have volunteered for more than ten years of their lives to selflessly serve each summer for a week of hard labor, not to mention months of planning and coordination to produce an amazing experience for hundreds of kids they barely know.  Their service made a powerful impression on Michelle and me.

All together, we had a terrific time but are completely exhausted.  We returned home this afternoon physically exhausted but spiritually rejuvenated. 

Missions and Meaning in the Global South

This past weekend I was blessed to attend the Christian Scholar's Conference at Rochester College near Detroit. The conference was enjoyable for many reasons but none more so than the plenary speaker, Philip Jenkins. Dr. Jenkins is a Distinguished Professor of History and Religious Studies at Penn State (and you thought they only played football and volleyball!) and he has recently written several books on global Christianity.

This weekend he presented two plenary sessions on the emerging shape of Christianity in the Global South (a term loosly used to refer to Africa/Asia/South America). The first session was a fascinating discussion of how reading the Bible is a fundamentally (no pun intended) different experience in the Global South than in the Global North. This lecture was based on one of his recent books (if you are at PU, this work is available as an "eBrary book" and can be read online in its entirity through WaveNet). This lecture was a 1-hr reminder of many of the pressing lessons we discussed during my MS in Missions at ACU (which oddly enough is now being led by one of my MS colleagues). I firmly believe--just as I did then--that every Christian should become familiar with these ideas. Nothing will shatter ones familiar (and often tired) views of scripture, authority, meaning, and truth than a realistic examination of how the "living oracles" come to have meaning in different ways in different cultures. I highly recommend Jenkins' work.

The second plenary session was on a book currently in progress tentatively titled "How Christianity Dies" (isn't that provocative?). In this session he discussed the rise (and fall) of Christianity in Asia and the "middle-east" from the first century to the 14th. It was a fascinating look at a time in history that has many similarities to our own. While many American and European Christians fear that we are moving towards a "post-Christian" world, this session gave me hope that God is simply moving in new and powerful ways around the world. The hegemony of the north and west may be coming to an end, but the Spirit is alive and well. For further thought on a very similar topic, I recommend Leonard Allen's recent book which I re-read on the plane from Detroit).

1 banana
+ 1 pair of pants
+ bicycle
=
near disaster!

So, I finally have something fun to write about. Today, I have to make some returns while I'm out getting my ear checkup. So, I rode to work today on my bike with a banana in one hand and a pair of pants to return in another. Obviously, this wasn't so easy. In case you've not seen the campus of Pepperdine University, its not exactly like the midwest. It's basically carved into the side of a hill. So there are very few flat surfaces to bike on. That makes riding a bike with your hands full a challenge. But, I made it all the way to work.

Unfortunately, I forgot my keys.

So, I thought "I should just leave the banana and pants here at the front desk while I go get the keys.". But, no...I'm too vain! "If I leave the pants", I reasoned, "someone might see what size they are and that will be embarrassing!" So, I thought, "I can at least leave the banana!" But again, my pride prohibited it and I thought "But someone might think I'm on a diet if they see me eating a banana!" I know, isn't it crazy! Pride and Vanity are evil masters, no?

So, I head right back home with the banana in my right hand, the pants in my left and my hands gently laid on the handlebars. Of course, the ride home is much more dangerous because its mostly downhill. That means I'm really cooking as I head down Via Pacifica and in through Via De Casa and onto Mariposa. And, of course, since I can just barely steer, I am trying to take a direct route...a straight line from the B-school parking lot to the pool at Mariposa. That usually works fine...I do it once a day with my hands empty.

But today was a bit different.

Today, I was coming back home at 8am on the nose. Of course, that is when people are going to work, dropping of the kids, walking the dogs...lots of stuff.

You guessed it...just as I hit the intersection of Via de Casa and Mariposa one of my neighbors was reaching it. They came to a complete stop (which, by the way, I rarely do at that stop sign!)...looked both ways... and since I was coming so fast I pulled up on them from their right just as they were looking to the left.

I tried to scream "Look out!", but my mouth was full of banana.

I tried to veer right, but as further evidence of what an awful odds calculator the human brain is, my cognitive subroutine preferred not squishing the banana by making a hard right turn over not hitting a Honda Civic.

As they gradually eased forward into my front wheel, I thought stupid banana!. Did I mention I was not wearing a helmet?

Well, the end of the story is that I'm fine. I have a very minor "boo-boo" on my elbow from where I hit the street. But since (thank God!) they came to a complete stop at the intersection I was just barely hit. If it had been one of the more reckless drivers on our street (and you know who you are, JA!) I could have been killed or at least seriously injured and spent the rest of the summer nursing a broken leg or shoulder.

OK...so now for the interesting part. This whole story reminds me of a conversation I had last night with my good buddy DMS. DMS and I were talking about a local pastor who recently resigned and has since been found to have been a serial philanderer. DMS, naturally, reacted with the "how can somebody do that! How can they risk their career, family, and ministry for such a fleeting pleasure?" attitude. I argued back that all of us basically do that to a lesser extent all of the time. I'm not talking about the "two-faced", hypocritical issue...but the issue of weighing risk.

In retrospect we look at this pastor and say "how could you commit such indiscretions and risk losing everything?" But, I suspect that for him, it did not begin as a decision to commit multiple extra-marital affairs. It likely began with something as "little" as allowing his eyes to remain a bit longer on a woman at the gym...or allowing himself an "innocent" conversation with a woman he found attractive. One thing leads to another and he likely never sat down and calculated the risk of taking the next step.

But, I think in some ways our two situations are perilously similar. Like me, he was a terrible odds calculator (the odds of getting "caught" in adultery have to be approaching 1). Like me choosing to save my banana and risk my life, he probably allowed some relatively minor issue outweigh the much bigger ones. Like me, he probably made a series of bad decisions that independently were minor, but together were overwhelming.

So, the next time you are making some "minor" decision, it may be worth asking,

what's the worst that could happen if I choose to do this?

Then decide if that is an outcome you are willing (or able) to live with. If not, you should give it serious consideration.

Even something as silly as saving a banana can cost your life. (BTW-the banana was squished all over the street after all plus now I need to buy a new wheel for my bike. Doh!)