I just wanted to test what putting a picture on here was like:

Meet Frankie:

A filabuster goes down in flames.

Gawd, I just hope Stevens (or the others) can last until after the next President is inaugurated....

The Institution question

It strikes me that these are precisely the questions that the church needs to begin thinking about: why does it matter?

It is a good post. Has me thinking about it....

The right kind of bad Christian....

I've been called a bad Christian too.

Worth Reading Aloud is right....

Stolen, word for word, from a plax over at fear and trembling:

Worth Reading Aloud

...are the following words in the form of a prayer by Saint Augustine.

Most high, utterly good, utterly powerful, most omnipotent, most merciful and most just, deeply hidden yet most intimately present, perfection of both beauty and strength, stable and incomprehensible, immutable and yet changing all things, never new, never old, making everything new and leading the proud to be old without their knowledge; always active, always in repose, gathering to yourself but not in need, supporting and filling and protecting, creating and nurturing and bringing to maturity, searching even though to you nothing is lacking: you love without burning, you are jealous in a way that is free of anxiety, you repent without the pain of regret, you are wrathful and remain tranquil. You will a change without any change in your design. You recover what you find, yet have never lost. Never in any need, you rejoice in your gains; you are never avaricious, yet you require interest. We pay you more than you require so as to make you our debtor, yet who has anything which does not belong to you? You pay off debts, though owing nothing to anyone; you cancel debts and incur no loss. (Confessions I.iv)

Go ahead. Make them yours....

On the progressive nature of the emergent movement

Ann Pittman blogs here. I can't say I've been reading her blog, but I found her on this recent exploration of the emergent movement.

Back last April she applied for a teaching job at an emergent church, and confronted sexism there.

The discussion of that application is on her blog, and I was struck by her comment:

So you can imagine how I feel now. Emergent is the moderate/progressive interdenominational church movement that has swept across the US, Britain, Australia and beyond. It is a response to fundamentalism, and an attempt to reclaim the beautiful traditions and truth of Christianity in an artistic, thoughtful, culturally relevant dialogue. For Westwinds Community Church to call themselves “culturally relevant” is a joke. Anyone or any church who wouldn’t hire a woman because she lacks the proper anatomy (i.e. is not a man) is not living in 2005. One of my friends wrote about how sad it is that Jesus could have been so progressive towards women 2000 years ago, but we insist on living minus that mission and truth. Christians should be the most progressive, truth embodying, gift embracing people on earth - why can we not step up to that challenge?

That is spot on...

Emergent scene and my possible transition

Six months into my current position. They've been great, and I gather that means (in some weird way) that I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing...

Things on this blog are likely in transition. Blogger's interface doesn't seem to grab me, and I'm not here much. Plus, I'm working on two blog projects at the church I'm serving: one a collaborative project, one a personal pastor's blog. That latter one might supercede this blog, which wouldn't amount to much I guess.

One of the interesting things this all has led me towards is back into the emergent culture, and the exploration of what this way of looking at church might mean for 21st Century Christianity.

A primer in emergent culture is available at emergent village, with some organizing principles (but note the debate over whether they are creeds, boundary markers, or such).

There are a myriad of webpages online devoted to emergent church, and indeed the internet is one of its more important tools. I'm beginning to explore how this movement happens among progressive/moderate mainline folks like myself...

One blog I've recently found that has me intrigued is by seminarian Adam Cleaveland at PTS.

So more soon...