It’s that time of year when everyone is reflecting back on 2005, taking stock of what it meant to us and what we enjoyed the most and least about the past year of our lives. The DJs are all playing their top 10 albums and the Academy Awards will soon pass judgement on the past year in flimmaking. And since I have a blog I’m obviously supposed to pass some of my own judgement, if for no other reason, so that you all may sleep better at night having known my opinions on such things… so here goes (feel free to disagree and post your own “best of” to rebut my foolishness).

Albums
5. Foo Fighters - In Your Honor
4. Weezer - Make Believe
3. The White Stripes - Get Behind Me Satan
2. Jack Johnson - In Between Dreams
1. Death Cab for Cutie - Plans

Films [updated]
[this is a fluid list because I have yet to see Capote, A History of Violence, Millions, North Country and others]
5. Brokeback Mountain
4. Walk the Line
3. Jarhead
2. Crash
1. Good Night, and Good Luck

TV Shows
5. Squidbillies
4. CSI
3. The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
2. The Office
1. The Colbert Report

Books [updated]
[the first two were actually published in 2004]
3. The March by E.L. Doctoro
2. Tortured Wonders by Rodney Clapp
1. Generous Orthodoxy by Brian McLaren

…wow so after that woefully incomplete list, I’m looking forward to your “best of,” so start commenting.

Like many you who find yourselves in the Emergent conversation, I have often been asked the question, “what IS the Emerging Church?” I’ve also been constantly asked “what IS the Ekklesia Project?,” but that’s for another post. These theological/praxis movements within the Church are really hard to pin down to a pithy statement which sums up their essence. It’s akin to asking “what IS North America?” There’s so much to say… all that being said, I think I know someone who is doing a great job of explaining what the Emerging Church is in a way that I find very helpful and very encouraging. Scot McKnight who is also a part of the Covenant church (which I currently find myself youth pastoring in), over at his blog Jesus Creed has been making some great posts on the subject, so I’ve listed here some of the top posts dealing with what the Emerging church is. So, if you’re like me and just want to know more and join in a deeper conversation with this movement, or if you really want to know what it is… read on.

1 - What is the Emerging Church?

2 - What is the Emerging Church? Protest.

3 - What is the Emerging Church? Postmodernity.

4 - What is the Emerging Church? Pro-Aplenty.

An Emerging Challenge

Doctrinal Statements and the Emerging Movement

Doctrinal Statements and the Emerging Movement 2

Doctrinal Statements and the Emerging Movement 3

Doctrinal Statements and the Emerging Movement 4

Doctrinal Statements and the Emerging Movement 5

Doctrinal Statements and the Emerging Movement 6

James Macdonald and Emergent

Russ Moore on McAuthenticity

Scripture: Authority and Innerrancy

Scripture: Replacing “Authority”

Seven Habits of Successful Emerging Discussions

What happens to Christmas when some Evangelicals get together and decide to make a “Chrisitan” MTV? WMT. I’m not sure what it stands for and I can’t find their website, but they’ve got a tv station (satillite probably). I was just at a local coffee shop in my local hometown of Arteisa, NM. It’s a “Christian coffee shop” where it looks like they have some local music from time to time. A great atmosphere really, I never thought our little cow-town would have something that hip. It’s where I’ll be spending a lot of my time on vacation. The only drawback was this Evangelical knock-off of TRL called WMT playing on a small tv in the corner.

Now TRL is anoying enough by itself so other than its popularity I don’t know why any self respecting Christian would want to immitate it. And if you were going to immitate TRL three days before Christmas you might want to drop the “holiday shopping segment” where you give mad props to the new XBOX 360 and tell all the cool Christian kids that they “must have it.” That might be a great time where you could devote your time to actually getting around to talking about something Christian… like what Advent means.

Our hip Christian VeeJay also pimped a 7-day trial of a walk with God that you could order and just see if your life didn’t get better… in just 7 days! He then went on to talk about how much he was looking forward to Christmas, that time when “tons of presents flow out of goodness towards… ME!” There might have been an asterisk somewhere on this show that “the reason for the season is Jesus,” but if you weren’t brain-dead you could tell that the message of this “Christian” knock-off of TRL was the exact same of the actual TRL: Christmas is about you, about gratifying all your warped materialistic desires and meeting the warped materilistic desires of your friends and families.

What if Catholics had a Christian Music Video station? Do you think they’d be talking about the RADICAL XBOX 360 and how lame you are if you don’t get one? Or do you think they might talk about Advent being a season of waiting, patience and repenting for the coming of the Lord. Well the problem is that Jesus doesn’t push records as quickly as totally awesome tubular rockin’ buddy Jesus… that kid can sell records… and XBOXes.

Trouble is, that Jesus wasn’t born in the manger, he was born on Madison Avenue and he serves his corporate father and the “almighty” dollar, not the Heavenly Father.

Photo Gallery

Tuesday night I got a call from Brian Postlewait asking if I’d like to see U2 on Thursday night in Omaha, NE. It didn’t take much pondering to know what my answer to this invitation was. So yesterday minutes after finishing up my second and last final of the semester I hopped in a minivan with 5 friends and we headed to the Quest Center in Omaha. Two of the guys with us were seeing U2 for the second time in as many days, they had just seen U2 in St. Louis the night before. And for one it was his 16th show! I however was going to my first ever U2 concert. Which makes this next part even more special.

As we entered Quest they scanned our tickets and Ed’s (Mr. 16) ticket was a “lotto” ticket which meant he and his group got to upgrade tickets from regular floor to the “inner circle” encompased by the stage. Check out where we stood HERE. I’ll just describe our closeness by saying that you could see the emotion in the eyes of The Edge.

Many U2 fanatics have told me that a U2 show has a litrugical feel to it. It begins with some fun songs but quickly draws you into worship, and with the songs they have to choose from its no wonder that many compare their music to a worship gathering. What’s even more interesting is the way songs are placed in the set list determines their contribution to the overall “story” that is being told at a concert. Not unlike the books of the Bible, which when put in different order emphasize different things. For example, “The Hands That Bulit America” was written for Gangs of New York and is about immigrants building America. But in concert this song comes after “Sunday, Blood Sunday” and “Bullet The Blue Sky” and images of F-15 fighter jets are lit up behind the band, making the song a commentary on America being built by way of violence. There was a confessional movement within the concert between “Love and Peace Or Else” and “Where the Streets Have No Name.” Bono brought a little girl up on stage and talked a little bit about CoeXisT. While the confessions of this section of the concert were largely confessions of violence, Bono didn’t come across as hateful or bitter. He dedicated these songs to the safe and quick return of American soldiers.

This was their set list:

City of Blinding Lights
Vertigo
Elevation
I Will Follow
Still Haven’t Found
Beautiful Day
Original of the Species
Sometimes you Can’t Make it On Your Own
Love and Peace or Else
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Bullet The Blue Sky
The Hands That Built America
Miss Sarajevo
Pride in the Name of Love
Where the Streets have no Name
One

Until the End of the World
Mysterious Ways
With or Without You

Stuck in a Moment
Crumbs From Your Table
Yahweh
40

Update:
Here are a few short videos from the show, that I put the original music over and spared you the unintelligible static hiss.
City of Blinding Lights
Elevation
Pride

Tonight as I settled into bed the tv was on… Rita Cosby was on MSNBC interviewing what seemed like everyone who had an opinion about the execution of Stanley “Tookie” Williams. Those who supported Tookie’s execution invoked in me a saddness. If you’ve ever seen or read Dead Man Walking, you have an idea of the kind of hurt that leads people to choose revenge over redemption. The families that choose vengance over forgiveness feel as if they cannot rest until the murderer is also dead, but more death never brings closure or justice. Besides my opinion that a family’s need for closure is not a good enough reason to kill a human being, I am convinced that Christ teaches his followers that only forgiveness will bring healing for these families, not death.

If Tookie did commit those murders, the hurt and pain and loss that he unleashed not only on the family & friends of the victims, but moreso on our creator God are real. And our God is a God of justice, but unlike California our God’s idea of justice is absorbing just such violence and hate, not returning it.

In this season of Advent we should be quick to remember that our God saw fit to “stretch Mary’s womb” as my friend Lucas sings. And why did the God of Abraham decide to become God with us? Did God just need physical hands to “smack us upside our head with a 2×4″ as so many people are wont to say? No, Jesus was born into this world to save it, not to condemn it (Jn. 3:17). Our God became a human being, so that through the body of Jesus all our bodies might also be redeemed. Jesus absorbed the hate and violence that this world hurled at him, and returned none. By returning only grace and love, even to his very executors, Christ gives the practice reconciliation to those who would live in his way and become his disciples. Revenge and returning evil for evil is not the way of the lamb that was slaughtered or the WORD who was born of the virgin Mary to save the world. That baby didn’t save the world with atomic bombs or execution chambers, he did through his own death.

Jessie Jackson brought up something that I think is very worthy to note. Jackson reminded Christians who have allowed their hearts to deny redemption that our history is full of redeemed people. Moses, King David and St. Paul were all murderers but were also redeemed and used by God. I think that we like to hear that our saints were ex-murderers or rapists because it gives an edge to our story, makes the love of Christ seem radical. But while we quickly tell the scandalous stories of our own reformed heroes we are far less speedy to apply that radical love to our enemies. How can we marvel at Saul’s transformation into Paul the Apostle but burn with hate for Tookie Williams? Oh that we would not find ourselves above our saviour and Lord, thinking that we’re worthy to rescind the grace we as followers of Christ must show to others. If we who have been saved from our sin and forgiven by a gracious God cannot in humility also learn to forgive others, what faith have we?

Peace of Christ to the victims and those who loved them.
Peace of Christ to Tookie. Tonight may you be met with grace in the arms of our Saviour.

Folks… this is cold.

Brrrrrrrr.

Well it didn’t snow for our game, but it was COLD enough to start snapping body-parts off if you weren’t careful. Chad and I started our day by doing a little face painting. I designed our face paint so that the Bronco logo stretched across our faces. Shout out to Lindi for doing my paint! Then our friend Rusty joined us and we headed to the game and got a ton of comments on our walk through the parking lot. You draw a lot more attention as a fan when you’ve got a bronco painted across your face, but that’s what we wanted. It was fun jawing back and forth with the cool fans.

The downside of course are the people who pay all that money to buy a ticket to the game and then get drunk off their Cheif-loving butts and feel the need to harass and threaten you… that’s a bit lame. But it’s all a part of the experience I suppose, it wouldn’t be football if everyone was sober and kept their rabid fanfare from turning personal and vulgar. I’ve always enjoyed going to pro games, but I always leave feeling like feminists are really onto something with their deep suspicion of men… I mean wow… men really can be pigs, especially when alcohol is involved and you throw in a tough AFC West rivalry.

Anyway, rant done. For those of you who are wondering if I’d convieniently leave it out… the Broncos did loose, but what a close and exciting game! Even if we lost, it was a lot of fun to be there in the bitter cold cheering on the Broncos (who remain in 1st place in the AFC West, need anyone be reminded).

Photo Gallery from the Game

Wil Ryland, a dear friend, and now blogger, posted something that’s well worth your time on his brand-new blog named In Broken Places.

Okay, there’s not really anymore to read… just go visit his blog already. GOSH!