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A Bit of a Discussion

May 19, 2006 By 6 Comments

We’re having a bit of a discussion over at the Da Vinci Code post from the other day.

Voice in the Wilderness says that the only winners in the whole hubbub are going to be the publishers and movie studios. (Check out his blog. He’s got a refreshing perspective on church and Christianity in general.)

Tania from Germany and I have been discussing the source of guidance we look to. She’s got a lot to add that stimulates conversation. (I wish she had a blog I could link to for you. I bet it would be a good read!)

Here’s your assignment for today: Go read the comments, then come back here. I can hang out for a minute or two until you get back. (Oh, and you can re-read the post too if you want a refresher on how the conversation started.)

When you come back here, join the conversation by sharing how you figure out when you are on the right course or not by posting a comment below.

Or just share your thoughts on the whole Da Vinci Code Hubbub. Are there winners in the whole thing? If so, then who is loosing?

I’ll go get another cup of coffee and wait here.

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Da Vinci Code Hubbub

May 17, 2006 By 8 Comments

The Da Vinci Code Movie is coming out this week. I get the feeling that there are some Christians who are afraid Dan Brown’s story will somehow usher in some kind of evil darkness devoid of Christian thought.

Google “da vinci code Christian” and you find that the Da Vinci Code needs debunking, breaking, deciphering, dismantling, and cracking. You can find out the truth about it, whether it’s fact or fiction, and why it has appeal. And every one of those links is on the opening search page. I didn’t have to hunt for them. Sheesh!

I got an email Jerry Falwell this morning with the subject line “The Da Vinci Code Deception.” My first instinct was to delete it. I do that a lot with his stuff because I’ve grown tired of his combative approach to every issue and what I perceive as his need to be right about everything.

But as I started thinking about writing this, I went back into my deleted items because his stuff is usually pretty well thought out, even if it is belligerent. I was hugely disappointed to find it was just an advertisement hawking a book of his own on the subject!

Our church has even had a few weekend messages devoted to the subject. I think they were a good idea because the approach was to try to give folks an idea of what all the hubbub is about.

Now here’s my thing: Are Christian leaders really afraid that the Scriptures that have withstood assaults for millennia are suddenly going to collapse because some guy writes a novel? Come on!

If I based my world view on something that flimsy, I would want it shaken up a bit!

I want to base my life on capital ‘T’ Truth. If some new mystery/thriller was all it took to shake my belief system then how true could it be?

The author even claims it as fiction. Does he stir the pot and muddy the waters? Of course he does. I bet he thinks the more controversy, the better since it equals free publicity. Publicity sells books and lines his pockets. If you read Dan Brown’s faqs you’ll see what I mean.

So we are in a rather ironic situation where Christians, in their effort to stand for truth and confront evil, are doing all the heavy lifting to make sure that the offending book gets as wide an audience as possible.

I think they’ve missed the point. God is big enough to manage His own reputation. He doesn’t need my help. (Sure I try to do little things to make Him look good. But that’s really more for my benefit than His. It’s not like His reputation is dependant on me!)

The problem is most people have never put any real effort into figuring out what they actually believe so they end up chasing what ever new idea comes along. It’s as futile as chasing the wind.

Sailors know you don’t chase the wind. You certainly can’t control it. The wind is going to blow where it will. All a good sailor can do is set his sails to the best of his ability so he can harness the wind to get where he wants to go.

When folks chase each new idea that comes along they are like a sailor steering all over the compass trying to chase the wind.

If they actually invested some time getting familiar with the source documentation, they might actually come to understand the things they believe and not be so prone to wander off after the next big thing. They could set their sails based on that truth and steer a straight course through life.

It’s high time Christians got a little passionate about the things they are for and stopped worrying so much about all the things they are against!

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Road Trip!

May 6, 2006 By Leave a Comment

I’m heading out of town for a couple of days. The bummer is I’ll miss Gorgeous by a few hours since she won’t be home until tonight. {Sigh…}

Anyway, I’m heading out to Charleston for the Coast to Coast Multi-Site Conference. The conference is Monday and Tuesday but I’m going up early for a couple of reasons.

The first is that I’ll get a little extra time to hang out with some of our friends. Gorgeous and I lived up there for a while. If I just drove up Monday it would be all conference and very little hang out time. And I just find it hard to actually consume mass quantities of coffee when I don’t get a little hang out time!

The second reason for going up early is that I’ve offered to help out with the tech team supporting the conference. I’ll be doing basically the same thing up there that I do most weeks down here at our Seacoast campus in Savannah.

But the Long Point campus generally has about 5,000 folks or so on a weekend. We run 175-ish in Savannah. The gear they use up there is just a little different. (Ya think?) And I’d rather not try to work out those differences on the fly during the conference on Monday.

Since I’ll be away for a while and don’t know what kind of computer access I’ll have to post new entries, I thought you might appreciate checking out some folks that I try to keep up with.

Interested in business, blogging, writing, networking, or the internet? Check out Successful Blog. I was a fan of Liz even before she called me an SOB.

Or maybe you’d like a little humor from a stay at home mom with way too much on her plate. If so, be sure to check out HolyMoma! I don’t have kids, but Kelsey’s descriptions of the various ways her kids manage to get messy usually generates a chuckle.

If you are into sci-fi or writing, check out the Writer’s Blog. I just discovered this one, but Jim brings an interesting perspective to the table. And his blog design is killer.

And finally, be sure to check out my buddy David Turner at TURNED OUT. Speaking of great blog design, and I don’t usually go for the black backgrounds! David’s a deep thinker and his words are worth mulling over for a bit before you move on. Be sure to check out his Jump Start posts on Mondays.

That should keep you going until I get back. And who knows, I might even be able to get something out from up there.

Enjoy!

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Finding Truth (Why I’m not God)

May 2, 2006 By 2 Comments

Last night a group of us had a little discussion about truth, weighty stuff to be sure. But having a frame of reference, a fixed star to guide your life, a core truth to filter our understanding of the world around us makes this journey of ours simpler and more fun by helping us make good choices.

We talked a little last night about the analogy of a compass. It is only a useful tool for navigation as long as the needle is pointing north. Imagine trying to get somewhere following a compass that is constantly swinging all over the place. How do you know which way to go? How would you ever get to your destination?

Obviously you wouldn’t. You’d just wander aimlessly.

It’s really the same with truth. Unless we hold to a core truth, a steady reference outside ourselves to regularly compare where we are going, we’ll wander aimlessly all over the map through life.

Me, I use the Bible as my standard of truth. I know it isn’t the only source out there. But I’ve asked my tough questions, looked at the other options, and I’m content that it’s a good choice.

No. To be honest, I feel it is the best choice. But hey, I leave open the possibility that I may find one day that there is a better option. Until that time, though, (if it ever comes) I’m running with what I’ve got.

But what if I decided to look inward instead of outward for my core guiding truth? What would that look like?

Here’re some of the things you would have to deal with if I were the source of truth:

  • Coffee and chocolate would both be their own food groups.
  • Sleep would be a pleasant option instead of a hard requirement.
  • Computers would naturally do what you wanted them to, not what you told them to.
  • My driving techniques would be only right way to operate your car.
  • Lawns would be self manicuring.
  • Gnats would cease to exist.
  • Every guy could afford to shop here.
  • The internet wouldn’t be in danger of being hijacked by the high speed providers.
  • Stupid people would have no rights (by my constantly changing definition of stupid, that is).
  • Exercise really would be for the birds.
  • Scaring cats would be a national sport.

And I’d be just getting started.

But I think you get the point. If I didn’t look to some external source to filter my choices through, I might very well believe that I’d be right to work toward some of the things on that list.

And that’s why truth is so important.

Jesus said, “And you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.” Obviously he thought truth was pretty stinking powerful.

So I’ll agree with him on this one. And I’ll be glad I’m not God!

Enjoy!

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Art

May 1, 2006 By 4 Comments

There are some things in this world that I just don’t get.

For example, I don’t get a lot of what Gorgeous does on the interior decorating front. She has baskets and trinkets all around the house. I mean the stuff looks nice and I’m glad she decorates. She is much better at it than I am.

For the holidays she’ll take glass Christmas ornaments and arrange them on the shelf on a swatch of cloth with a couple strings of glass beads. It’s nice, helps make the house festive and I even like it.

But I don’t get it. And I never would have thought to do that. Left to me the ornaments would have simply would have just ended up on the tree, not the shelf.

It is an ongoing joke in our family. Gorgeous will see something, or be talking with one of her girlfriends about decorating or some such when I’m nearby. She’ll turn to me and say, “You don’t get that, do you Chris?”

Nope. I’ll have to fess up. I’m not sure if that makes me defective in some small way. Maybe I’m lacking a decorating gene or something.

Another thing I often don’t get is art.

My friend Jeremias was teasing me about bragging on Emily the other day, but not mentioning his gallery show that I went to a couple of weeks ago. (Of course now he’s going to harass me about appearing to cave, but I’ll get over it.) And it got me to thinking. Why would I brag on one friend, but not another.

Thinking about it, I realized that to be totally honest, I don’t really get much of his work. Although I do rather like the shot with the cows because, well, it has cows. And he had a really cool piece in the gallery that looked a little like someone from Star Trek beaming in which I liked because I’m into sci-fi. I bugged him until he told me how he made that effect. So now I know, which is cool too.

The rest of it looks good and all and I understand the theme behind what he had in the gallery. But I feel like I’m missing out on something.

And trying to have him explain it was frustrating for both of us. The whole effect of art is pretty much lost when it hast to be explained to some dolt like me. I imagine he feels awkward as though me not getting it somehow devalues his work. Nope. I just don’t have the art-appreciation gene either.

As long as I’m highlighting my artist friends, take a look at Josh’s work. I like his panoramas, I guess because that’s pretty much the way my eyes see the world. His photos from Iraq give a feel of what it must be like over there.

Then check out Peter’s movie. I have to confess I get movies a little more easily than painting or photography. Besides I helped Peter out on the set a couple days. If you look at photo #20, that’s me holding the reflector.

There actually is a take-away from all this.

Just because we don’t value something doesn’t mean the thing has no value.

Forgetting that gets us in trouble. On both sides of the coin. On the one side we can end up looking down on others who value different things than we do.

The other side of the coin is just as damaging. Because we may feel like we’re defective if we look for others to confirm our values. Just because they don’t share the same passions, doesn’t mean ours are necessarily misplaced.

Find some art. Enjoy it. You don’t even have to get it.

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Imagination Power

April 28, 2006 By 3 Comments

You ever walk into something and have your expectations overwhelmingly exceeded by the experience? I did just last night.

Gorgeous and I went to the Savannah Arts Academy for their first student film festival to support Emily who is a student there and one of the key members of our tech team at church. Now Gorgeous and I don’t have any kids, but I remember school plays and band concerts from when I was in high school. I remember them being the kinds of things that, if you didn’t have a connection with someone directly involved, you’d rather be somewhere else, anywhere else, maybe even the dentist.

Boy was I wrong. My first clue could have been that the school has its own Wikipedia entry. Or maybe I should have noticed when I walked up that I was a tad underdressed with my khaki’s and a polo shirt. The school did a great job making the kids feel honored and important, giving them the whole red-carpet treatment. It was nice, and fun, but I’m not about the hype. I go for substance, baby.

Well when the thing got started, the school had arranged the evening to be emceed by pairs of local news anchors from no less than three different stations. Cool. Then again, I’m not about the hype.

But when they started showing the film clips these kids put together I was completely blown away. The categories were commercials, public service announcements (PSA’s), and music videos. With the commercials and PSA’s the kids only had 30 second of film time to get a message across. And man did they deliver.

Some of the best work was in the PSA category. The imagination poured into the creative ways the kids told stories to get their message across was incredible. You could tell they were passionate about the causes they chose to represent. And the best of them had a hook at the end that either wrenched your heart or made you burst out laughing.

These kids may not have put together something as technically polished as what you see on TV (it was real close though), but I’m telling you the stories they told in those 30 second spots were more powerful than anything you see put together by the Ad Council. Someone there should get a copy of the DVD and take some lessons from these kids. Or maybe hire some of them.

What made their work so good?

Gorgeous and I were talking about that on the drive home last night. I think that the best ones were where the kids took a really ambitious idea and went for it. The higher they reached the better the results.

And then this morning I stumbled across an article this morning by Curt Rosengren called Finding your Infinity where he says

So many of us are obsessed with our limitations. It’s almost as though we can see nothing but the reasons we can’t do, or be, or achieve what we aspire to.
What if we flipped that on its head? What if, instead of our limitations, we focused on the amazing potential and possibility that stretches far beyond what we can see from where we stand in the moment?

Man, those are great questions. It is something Gorgeous and I both struggle with. It is so much easier for us to look at all the reasons why something can’t work rather than putting our energies into reasons and ways that it could work and work big.

It ties in with a question J.R.R. Tolkein, once asked C.S. Lewis (thanks to Mark Batterson)

Maybe lack of faith is really a failure of imagination?

Ooch!

Jesus put a high value on belief. He said, “If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”

What’s the take-away? Learn from the kids at Savannah Arts Academy.

Ask “How can I make that happen?” and stop worrying about why an idea might not work.

Use your imagination.

Exercise your flabby faith.

Change the world.

Enjoy!

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Odds Ends

April 10, 2006 By Leave a Comment

Had a conversation with a lady yesterday who’s fairly new to town. Said they came here from Fellowship Bible Church and first heard about our church here in Savannah online with a web search. Our campus is still pretty small so I think it is pretty cool that someone found us first online.

Our house is about ½ mile from not one, but two sets of railroad tracks. It is far enough away that it doesn’t shake things in the house (much). But it is close enough that there is no doubt when trains are going through. And we get a fair number of them too because both sets of tracks are fairly active. When we first moved in I was concerned that the passing trains might get annoying after a while. But after being here a couple of years they have become sort of a comfort sound that makes me feel at home. Funny, that.

Mark Batterson said they had a bit of a challenge this weekend. The theaters that they have church in Sunday mornings flooded with sewage Saturday night. That kind of makes some of the challenges we’ve had seem like small potatoes! Theater knee deep in popcorn because the cleaning crew didn’t show over night? Have to have church somewhere else because they are showing Narnia? The guys broke in because we were locked out? (“really officer, we’re a church. Honest.”) Well at least there isn’t sewage flowing through the theater!!!

Dilbert’s Boss is up to his usual tricks today.

Tony Morgan was up to manly things this weekend.

Lastly, I want to formally apologize to my neighbors for not cutting the grass before it started to rain on Saturday. I promise I will level out the weeds tomorrow…

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Resident Evil

March 31, 2006 By 3 Comments

Today’s Friday Free-For-All deserves a special title.

You see its Spring Time, the time of year the Old Testament says when the Kings would traditionally go to war. Here in Savannah it the time of year we have a different battle on our hands – against the sand gnats.

Sand gnats are tiny biting flies that swarm down here in the spring. They are small enough to get through all but the finest screening, hang out especially in the mornings and evenings, and are attracted to CO2 and sweat.

Which means that they own the cooler parts of the day, but just in case, the hotter you get the more likely they will be attracted to you because you are sweating more and breathing more heavily. Oh, and you can’t really get away from them because they will swarm into your car as you open the door. And you better have good screens on your house!

Did I mention they bite?

There’s nothing quite like the feeling of getting your scalp gnawed on from a dozen different angles at once. Especially in the morning.

I checked Wikipedia and Wikispecies and neither have entries for our special kind of gnat. The best web entry I could find is here.

I’m convinced these things are beyond nasty. They are pure evil. I think I can back that up Biblically.

They’re bad enough that they are the mascot of our minor league baseball team. I bet folks who come out of season think it is a cute choice for a mascot. But if they come down here now, they’d realize how annoying the gnats can be.

Apparently they breed in the marshes of the Low Country. I’ve lived on Amelia Island, FL (just over the border) and in Charleston, SC and I promise you the gnats were nothing like they are here.

Do you get the feeling that I don’t like gnats? Gorgeous will tell you I’m not so much of an outdoorsy kind of guy anyway. My idea of roughing it is a hotel that doesn’t have room service.

And I don’t need much of an excuse not to do yard work. Of course the time I have available to do it is in the gnat owned evening. So if you happen to drive by and see my yard is knee deep, please be patient. I have to combat Evil before I can even get to the grass.

People here talk about moving above the “gnat line” like it is some mystical far off place. I’m not sure where the line actually is on the map, somewhere between here and Atlanta, for sure. Near Macon, perhaps?

I don’t think the kings of the Old Testament were really so keen on fighting. Maybe they were just trying to get away from the gnats!

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