Sunday Seven

  1. Searching for God in the brain.  Scientists create a sense of God’s presence by stimulating part of the brain.  So does God.  A balanced article from Scientific American via Slashdot.
  2. When church humor eclipses truth.   Here’s a pointed Christianity Today article about how we can go too far - WAY too far - in making church entertaining and fun.
  3. Your outboard brain knows all.  “…The line between where my memory leaves off and Google picks up is getting blurrier…”  From Wired.
  4. Andy Stanley online.  Stanley is one of my favorite preachers and a founder of the Catalyst conference I attended last week.  You can listen to his messages online or download them.
  5. Purpose of the appendix possibly found.  At Catalyst, one speaker called someone an appendix in the Body of Christ.  “You don’t DO anything but you may blow up and kill us all!”  This finding may ruin a good illustration.  From CNN via Slashdot.
  6. Me, Myself, and Jesus.  An Out of Ur posting about how calling Jesus a “personal Savior” seems to make us His owner.
  7. Indian Summer?  Just when I thought Fall was here to stay, Summer returns.

October 8, 2007 · Filed Under Sunday 7

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Sermon: Our image problem & what we’ll do about it

#3 - Our image problem and what we’ll do about it

October 7, 2007

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October 7, 2007 · Filed Under MHCC, Sermons

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In praise of subtlety

Not these guys Over the past month or two, we have been watching at our house the new Battlestar Galactica, which (thankfully) bears only a passing resemblance to the 1978 series (pictured at left, along with a “futuristic” computer). The new Battlestar began in 2003 and has developed simultaneously with the Iraq war, so it isn’t surprising that it draws on images and themes from Iraq. Over the first two seasons, the writers did a subtle job of evoking current events without being (I hate to use this term) “preachy”.

But in the first episode of season three, subtlety went out the airlock (temporarily, at least). Characters started talking about “winning the hearts and minds” as the occupiers tried to recruit and train locals to run the police force, and there was an insurgency and suicide bombers. It seemed like the show’s creators were trying too hard to make their points, and it turned me off. The show righted itself and returned to subtlety by episode 3, so I’m still watching.

I recently visited a Knoxville business where the owner is exceptionally up front about Jesus - Scriptures on the wall, Christian music on the speakers, staff telling me to “have a blessed day”. I always have two concerns about such an obvious joining of faith and business:

  1. Will it scare non-Christians away? What seems godly to us may look cultish to them.
  2. Is Christ being used to market a product? If so, the Gospel is cheapened. Besides, people who market with the name of Jesus tend to be judged more strictly (”How can you call yourself a Christian and not fix my brakes for 25 cents?”) Churches and pastors get hit all the time with such Spirit-filled marketing. A college friend of mine recently posted this blog entry on the topic.

I’m all for living our faith publicly, but I wonder if subtlety might be the way to go? (I DON’T mean in the Genesis 3:1 KJV sense :) ). Battlestar is at its best when it raises tough issues without telling me what to think. Maybe witnessing should at least begin the same way.

October 2, 2007 · Filed Under Culture, War

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