How YOU Doin’?

By Matt Horan

I think I’ve successfully managed to talk about Joey from Friends and the Bible in the same post.  And they said it couldn’t be done…

During Israel’s Feast of Weeks, Ruth has been traditionally read as a celebration of faithfulness.  Naomi was an Israelite who lived in Moab to escape a famine.  She lived with her husband and two sons, who married Moabite women, Orpah (not to be confused with Oprah) and Ruth.  Tragically, Naomi’s husband and two sons died, and she encouraged her daughters-in-law to return home to the Moabites and try to find new husbands.  Orpah was eventually persuaded to return, but Ruth did not.  (Orpah, not Oprah.  Oprah would have stayed.)

Three Dog Night

By Matt Horan

For some reason, I found the song “One is the Loneliest Number” in my head the other day.  For me, sometimes hearing the song will get it out of my head, so I was perusing the internet to see if there was some way I could hear it without the time or expense of downloading it or requesting it on the radio.  In my travels along the information superhighway, I discovered that it was the second biggest hit by the group Three Dog Night.  (The biggest was “Jeremiah was a Bullfrog.”) 

What Really Bothers Me

By Matt Horan

Here’s what really bothers me.

People are really pissed off. In fact, I think that there’s an increasing degree of pissed-offedness. Thankfully, that isn’t really a word, and further, there’s probably not the science available to us to measure pissed-offedness. And even if there was and I proved it, someone would discount my findings because I’m not a sociologist. So, I’ll just call it what it is–I have a theory that there’s increasing pissed-offedness in the world, though I’m without the tools or clout to measure it. I guess I’ll see if I can get some friends to become a fan of “Pissed-offedness.” Maybe if I can say that 16 of my friends are “fans of pissed-offedness,” then that can begin to look like some credibility for my theory. Until then, I guess it’ll remain just a theory. Fortunately, that’s all you need to write something and send it off onto the information superhighway for worldwide distribution. Beautiful.

The Vault

By Matt Horan

The Sermon on the Mount is Jesus’ longest recorded teaching, and it does nothing short of turn the world upside down.  The beatitudes teach that the poor will be rich, that the meek will be in charge, that the humble will be lifted up.  He praises those who make peace—not those who live off of political partisanship.  He praises the persecuted, the mourning, the pure, and the merciful.  He casts vision for the Kingdom of God, and to the chagrin of the political players of the day, it looks nothing like the visions that they were casting for their own cause.

Serious Doubts

By Matt Horan

During the latter part of the 19th century there was a tightrope walker in Europe who was famous for saying, “If you can string a line across it, I can walk it.” His name was Jean-Francois Gravelet, but he went by the stage name of “The Great Blondin.”  He was one of the greatest acrobats of all time.

His greatest feat occurred on September 14, 1860 when he accepted the challenge to cross Niagara Falls on a tightrope.  There was a wealthy American who provided the funding to string a 1,100 feet rope across Niagara Falls, 160 feet above the water, so The Great Blondin could be put to the ultimate test.

Phyllis Tickle: Beyond Denominations

By Kristy Harding
The Ooze posted an incredibly interesting interview with Phyllis Tickle yesterday called, “Beyond Denominations, the Hyphenated Church.” In it she posits that the Protestant denominations are like the Church in Jerusalem and the emergence is like the Church in Antioch, and the Protestant denominations have the obligation to bless the emergence like the Church in Jerusalem passed the torch to the Church in Antioch.

Of course, we don’t know what is actually going to happen, but she presented several alternative models of what the response could be.

Here are theories she posited–with names I made up for ease of discussion:

The Ring Model: With a group of “hyphenated emergence Christians” within the denominations being on the periphery of the larger emergence movement.

Protestant Leaders in Diaspora Model: A movement of Protestant leaders streaming into the emergence movement and bringing the charisms of their native denominations to the emergence and influencing it.

The Good Fences Make Good Neighbors Model: The emergence and Protestantism exist side-by-side like Protestantism and Catholicism do now.

While it’s possible that these models are the wave of the future, I believe that all of these models are happening simultaneously right now.

Assisted Suicide: Is it about life or death?

By Kristy Harding

Two weeks ago today Sir Edward and Lady Joan Downes ended their lives at the Dignitas clinic in Zurich. By now the story has been sufficiently sliced and diced by the press that the shock has worn off for those of us who didn’t know the couple personally, but the question remains: Shouldn’t the church be able to look at these deaths and say something more helpful than, “Sir Edward and Lady Joan died, and this is sad, sad news“?

Hide and Seek

By Matt Horan

Every so often there comes a time when a father must teach their children the important lessons in life—lessons about relationships, money management, getting a job, buying a car, etc.  Well, it was a couple years ago when one of those moments came upon me.  It was time, I felt, to teach the girls how to play hide and seek.

So, I taught them about hiding, and made a big show about finding them.  Then I hid and waited for them to find me.  They loved it, and we played every day for weeks.  But I discovered something disconcerting—my kids might be the worst hide-and-seek players in the world.

Young Americans Losing Their Religion

Young Americans Losing Their Religion

We Need You More Than You Need Us

By Matt Horan

            Evangelism is terrifying sometimes, isn’t it?  You’re basically approaching someone wit the message, “The way you are isn’t quite enough.  You need Jesus.”  Unless you’re one of those annoying bullhorn people, who wants to say that?

American Jesus, Chinese Jesus, and African Jesus

By Matt Horan

          As a fan of Jesus Christ, is it bad if I don’t care whether or not the Ten Commandments are hanging in the U.S. Supreme Court?  As a fan of Jesus Christ, is it bad if I don’t care whether or not my kids are taught Creationism as a scientific theory in school?  As a fan of Jesus Christ, is it bad if I don’t get offended when someone at Target wishes me “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Chistmas”?  As a fan of Jesus Christ, is it bad if I don’t worry if there’s no ”prayer time” offered to kids in public schools?

Preachable

By Matt Horan

          It’s good to be “teachable.”  It’s a nice compliment, usually given by a mentor or teacher–someone who has gone before us and is keenly aware that they’ll someday be leaving the world in the hands of those who come after them.  I wonder, then.  Does that mean that, if someone is open or ready to hear what a preacher is saying, they’re “preachable”?