I was just listening to a podcast about the print industry. They were discussing the ways that the world of print is adjusting to the electronic media that is quickly becoming the mode of choice for information trafficking. The phrase, “Print is dead,” was being tossed around a bit, but then dispelled, as print has not died, just … changed. What you are reading right now is the new version of “print”. Most who read news/blogs/info on the web do not actually “print” that information, but, still, it is the communication of information through words that are read.

All that has changed is the medium by which those words are transfered. No longer is it paper in a book or newspaper or magazine. It’s pixels on a screen of a computer, or a cell phone, or a PDA, or any other hand held device.

I think that’s neato.

And I experienced a bit of the shift just yesterday, when a Buffalo Bills magazine came in the mail. Fifteen years ago, I would have sat down and soaked up every bit of the great content of that publication. But this time, as I perused the printed pages, I found that all it contained was rehashed old news! By the time they can get a magazine out to people in print, through the mail… the information has already been read and assimilated as needed. It’s already been said!

That was just a funny moment for me, and I thought it worth commenting on. I am glad for the new medium. It has defintely allowed for more voices to be heard. It has obviously made information much more rapidly available. And, it’s just cool.

And less trees have to die. That’s good, isn’t it?

I like trees.

I was listening to the Glenn Beck Show today (a best of show, since it’s Thanksgiving today…) and they were commenting on a football coach who made some remarks about the other team having more “Afro-Americans” and that being the primary reason that his own team lost the game. So, the radio program was mostly just having fun talking about how people shouldn’t be offended by that… cause it’s true! They went on and on about how there are some general stereotypes of groups of people that are generally true. That it doesn’t mean if you’re black, you are a good athlete, or, that if you’re a good athlete that you’re black… BUT, that they are generally true.

Well, if you know me very well, you can imagine I was not happily agreeing with all of that.

It’s not that I am blind to “trends”. I do understand why we create stereotypes. But, my issue is (and always has been) …. why MUST we LABEL?

Sterotypes and all forms of prejudice and racism come from our us vs. them, labeling mentality. We must for some reason group and identify people. Categorize. Label. Why can we not let people be individuals? Why must we pre-judge people by placing them in some sort of group?

See, for a long time I have hated the male/female stereotypes. I don’t fit a lot of them, and perhaps that’s why I dislike them? But, mainly, I see people using stereotypes as ways to excuse poor choices (women are “moody”, so that’s ok… men are “visual” so, checkin’ out the ladies is ok… etc). In fact, I see no benefit to stereotypes at all. They are only labels that limit and inhibit true, open, deeper relationships.

I wrote a long post about this once, which I never published (at my wife’s request) to protect the innocent. 🙂 But, in summary, it was called “They” because I was part of a conversation where we were talking about people who had some particular physical handicap, and we called every person who had that handicap “They”. We lumped every person into one group, making them some homogenous entity rather than individuals. It just bothered me that even with the best intentions, we were reducing individuals to a mass, nameless and faceless “they”.

If we could somehow stop labeling, I think we’d be better off. There would be no racism, or prejudice. We could just interact with each other without assumptions. I think that’s a bit unrealistic, but I do wish it were possible. I will continue to strive to NOT label in my life.

And I guess that’s all I can do.

(PS… I wrote this while making mashed potatoes for the big family dinner today, so hopefully it kinda makes sense…) 🙂

Before I write anything else… just wanted to say, I miss blogging. I looked back and noticed that most of the blogging I did this month was while on vacation! 🙂 Guess I’m feeling busy these days. The Bills show and my web design business do keep me fairly busy. Along with my growing family, I suppose. But, I think there are just times when my trust in God’s provision makes me feel like I need to give more time to the things that will “make us money” … and unfortunately, blogging is not one of those yet.

Any donors out there?

🙂

Well, on with the blogging…

Remember I said at the end of my Academia post that Ian would be reading that post. Well, let me tell you, at age 6, Ian read that post! (I had to explain a few… ok, a lot… of words, but he read them all! Amazing!!)

We went to Pizza Hut tonight for Ian’s free Pizza for reading in the BookIt program. I should have told them he’s reading college level material. 🙂

You know, I am fairly certain that I am not a product of the opposite of everything my parents tried to train into me. I am pretty sure that they did a good job of passing along their values of loving God, and loving people, and a good, healthy work ethic, and just a general contentment in life.

But…

What I see in my son fascinates me.

He is drawn to all of the stuff we are working so hard to get free from in our lives. The things that we feel are binding us, not allowing us to experience life to the full as Jesus meant for us… these things that we are graciously removing from his life before he gets too deeply involved… these things he wants. He is drawn to them like a magnet.

So, if I really want to help Ian, should I surround him with all the things he must learn to shun and convince him that all the things I really don’t want him to be entangled by are the very things he should seek after? THEN he would by nature be drawn to the opposite, which would be what I wanted in the first place?

I’m very confused. 🙂

Was 5’11” and 3/4

Am 5’10” and 3/4

Weird.

How about a fuel cell for your laptop??

Read article…

I noticed this article posted to The God Journey as I was publishing mine tonight (just below). Seemed related.

Check it out.

(PS… I have not gotten to mention yet. The God Journey is a weekly podcast where two guys who are outside of the traditiona church structure discuss issues relating to that, or really just about anything. There is a bunch of participation through email and other media by believers all over the world. It’s always a great 45 min to an hour. AND, now they are using our songs as the intro/bumper music. 🙂 Thought that was pretty cool too. They put a banner on their home page for us. That was also nice.) 🙂

In a conversation with friends recently, we found ourselves discussion various incarnations of the body of Christ and at one point I stopped to correct what I think is a fundamental error in our understanding of who we are as “the church”.

It was simple, really, and one might argue that it is mere semantics, and I needn’t concern myself with such trivialities, but I must insist… this may be one of our biggest misconceptions of who we are.

We applied the word “Church” to a public gathering where many believers (and/or non-believers) gather to sing, listen to teachings, often participate in a ritual of eating and drinking small emblems of greater significance than their size would indicate, and usually there is some chance to present an offering to God from the bounty of our wallets. 🙂 We, as a society, as a culture, and as “the church” call this event, “Church”. It’s pretty universal. That time, always on Sunday mornings (but could be other times in addition to Sundays, unless your Seventh Day Adventists, then it’s on Saturdays) is what we call, “Church”.

To further complicate linguistic matters, we also call the entire 501c3 organization a “church”. We also apply the term to the edifice in which said organization conducts meetings and other business. Sometimes we even apply the term to a larger organization, encompassing many other smaller organizations (aka a denomination) such as the Methodist, Wesleyan, Baptist, Episcopal or simple, Christian “Church”.

Are you confused yet?

We have applied the term “church” to such a variety of things, who knows what the real meaning of the word really even is anymore???

I am not here to embark on some tireless, etymological debate on the Greek words used in the NT for church. If you read my post about academia, you can probably understand why that is not my focus here. My point is much simpler. As is, I believe, the definition of “church”.

We have added so much to what we really are as the church. From my reading of the new testament, the church is not an event, or a location, but a people. We who trust our lives to Jesus are the church. We exist as the church not because of anything we do, but as we opt in with Jesus, we are added to his body and become a part of the Body of Christ, his Bride, The Church. We don’t have to sign a membership agreement, or even go through a series of membership classes. Our “membership” in the church is an outcome of our relationship with Father.

The church, as I understand it would not cease to exist if there was no building to meet in. Nor, (and perhaps here is where you reach for your stone to silence the blasphemer) does the church cease to exist when we cease to meet for worship. What?! How can that be? THAT IS church! Really? Is the bride of Christ simply a gathering of people to perform some predetermined (or even spontaneous) act of worship? I think not.

There are many things that we as members of the church can do together, and obviously, worship is one of them. (That in itself is a broad and perhaps abused term, that may precipitate another blog at a later date.) We can also study together, play together, grieve together, laugh together, serve each other, help each other, and anything else you can think of “together”. The church is definitely meant to do life together, but none of those activities, should they cease, could somehow preclude us from being “the church”. When we’re in Jesus, we simply are the church. Period.

Does this make sense? I am not decrying our gatherings of any sort. We must. That is really one of the main purposes of the church – the “one anothering” that we can do. But we must understand that the church is not an event, and it is not a location, or anything associated with either of those.

We are the church. The body of believers whom Jesus has gathered. There are many manifestations of his body, and I am pretty sure these days that they are not the ones that we think they are. They are not housed by bricks, nor do they brandish towering steeples. They are a body, whom the Head directs as he pleases.

Consider this from Ephesians, written to the people who had been considered outsiders by the Jews, who felt their lineage provided them special access to God:

Eph 2:19-22

So now you Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners. You are citizens along with all of God’s holy people. You are members of God’s family. We are his house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself. We who believe are carefully joined together, becoming a holy temple for the Lord. Through him you Gentiles are also joined together as part of this dwelling where God lives by his Spirit.

Or these words of encouragement from Peter:

1 Pet 2:5, 9-10

And now God is building you, as living stones, into his spiritual temple. What’s more, you are God’s holy priests, who offer the spiritual sacrifices that please him because of Jesus Christ.

But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are a kingdom of priests, God’s holy nation, his very own possession. This is so you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.

“Once you were not a people;
now you are the people of God.
Once you received none of God’s mercy;
now you have received his mercy.”

We are a nation. Natural citizens born into new life offered through Jesus. He is our Head, and we are his members. We are not an event you can go to, nor a place you can visit. We are a living, breathing house of God. He dwells in his people… everywhere.

This really only matters because I think we need to reconsider how we use the word church. As we apply it more correctly, the life we live as the church might begin to focus more on the relational, family life it was intended to be, and less on the structures we have created to maintain that life. I read recently that a healthy church is focused on the Groom and not on the Bride. When we are only thinking about how to “do church” better, and not thinking about how to be Jesus’ bride, we are missing the point of who we are.

We are the church. His beloved. That’s better than any meeting or building or any other thing we could settle for.

Alex got many comments this evening on his fine Halloween attire. 🙂

Here’s a few shots of Alex in his pregame warmups. We’ll post some of the whole crew when we get a chance.

But, hey… I’m on VACATION! So, this is all you get. 🙂