Hundreds of churches will be closing there doors this year. I’m not about to call this a good thing, but it is inevitable. The fact is that no big news is coming out of the Jerusalem Church these days, or Corinth or Laodicea.
We like to talk about churches as “bodies” or “plants,” but we forget that all life dies. Some churches die in explosions of controversy. Others fizzle down to a few gray hairs paying exorbitant bills.
Perhaps today we should also talk about churches as stories. Essential elements of stories include Setting, Characters, Conflict, and most importantly the plot–beginning, middle and end.
Leaders could cast a vision the churches whole story: How did your church begin? What God has done through it in the past? What would it look like for the church to end well?
Great stories require great endings. A church might reinvent itself to by handing over the reins to a new generation, or selling the property and giving the money desperate church planters.
A church’s death could actually be the most powerful thing it does for the kingdom.
I LOVE Glee. After a lifetime of watching romanticized stories of jocks and cheerleaders (minus the beautiful reprieve of Freaks and Geeks) there is finally a show for us Choir nerds!
The first half of Glee’s first season brought back everything from Journey to The Thong Song in a show choir format you have to love. It’s so fun that no one cares that 20-something Broadway starlets are masquerading as ambitious teenagers. Behind the music are twisted stories of love and lies, that reached a dramatic pitch as intense as anything else on television. There’s something in it for everybody.
It’s too good to last.
By it’s very nature, Glee is a gimmick. We’ve put past the silliness of singing in the hallways and overly dramatic characters because it’s so lovable. But gimmicks can’t last forever.
What scares me is the ridiculously contrived storyline of last week’s Madonna episode will become normal. Come up with a theme, and try to fit the story into it. Glee has worked thus far because the story and characters are compelling enough to ignore it’s ridiculousness.
Last week’s episode was a cheap trick, one that would be easy for producers to repeat.
I’m not sure how I graduated High School without having to read 1984. Part of my goal of intentionally picking out 40 books for 2010 was to read a few of those books I always knew I should read.
It doesn’t take long to understand what makes 1984 a dystopian masterpiece. It’s influence of science fiction is obvious, and the pop culture legacy of terms like “Big Brother” doesn’t seem to be going away.
Although we made it through 1984 without falling into socialism, many of its warnings are more timely now than ever. The power of The Party was in their complete control of information, even the ability to control perceptions of the past.
The explosion of information in our culture promised to eradicate such threats, but it may actually be creating them. With too many voices to listen to, we create echo chambers of those who already agree with us. It’s easier to follow someone’s twitter links than to actually do the research. It wouldn’t be too hard for a few voices to control such a conversation.
I believe I posted this last St. Patrick’s Day, but it bears repeating. And Praying.
Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me.
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.
Y: The Last Man, began as one the most fascinating and addictive graphic novels I have ever read, but ended in lethargy and preachy-ness. Published and told over five years, Y is a unique post-apocalyptic story of manchild Yorick, the only living male to survive a catastrophe that kills every male creature on earth.
Yorick is a pop-culture junkie a la Kevin Smith, aspiring escape artist, and woefully immature. He is accompanied by a fem fatale from a secret organization, a shy genius biologist on the verge perfecting human cloning, and a monkey. As they travel across the U.S. and eventually the world, they are faced with the worst that both mankind, and womankind have to offer. Yorick is seduced by desperate women, attacked by violent anti-misogynists, and hunted by foreign governments. With half its population suddenly gone, most societies delve into violence and rampant sexuality, while the remaining institutions, such as women’s prisons and orders of nuns, struggle to redefine themselves.
I hesitantly recommend The Last Man. Stephen King called it the best graphic novels he’d ever read. It’s compared to Lost in it’s depth and addicting nature. It is also surprisingly fair, condemning both feminism and misogyny. However, the only overarching theme is that of Yorick’s own disjointed and disappointing descent into adulthood. As the book progresses it’s theme gets lost in the graphic portrayal of widespread homosexuality. The authors try to wrap it all in a touching love story, however even this is lost, along with a clear answer as to what caused the catastrophe in the first place.
Y: The Last Man is a lot of fun, raises some good questions, but is too graphic and looses its way. In other words, it’s not for everybody.
Not totally free, but lots of new free content from Tim Keller. Always engaging. http://ht.ly/2yhhk #podcastthursdays www.twitter.com/chrismorton822010/09/02
Hundreds of churches will be closing there doors this year. I’m not about to call this a good thing, but it is inevitable. The fact is that no big news is coming out of the Jerusalem Church these days, or Corinth or Laodicea.
