Signed up for Vonage today. If you have broadband, this is a VERY affordable way to replace your phone service, and it works great.

I finished reading The Spirit of the Discplines by Dallas Willard. It was recommended to me about 12 years ago and has been sitting on my bookshelf since — feel kind of foolish for not reading it before. It is very much in the vein of The Divine Conspiracy, which is no surprise since they are books one and three in a trilogy. I think it was actually easier reading than the Divine Conspiracy. There was a lot of underlining and many dog-eared pages when I was done. Here’s a few of the questions/thoughts I have in my book journal:

pg 99 — We often gauge our religious services by how much people ‘feel good’ about them. We also feel like a service was good if it ‘went well.’ Neither of these ever would have crossed Paul’s mind. What does it look like when a religious service is successful? In what ways can we measure that people have encountered God?

pg 139 — “The need for extensive practice of a given discipline is an indication of our weakness, not our strength.” — Brilliant! The disciplines are often talked about as if they are the pinnacle of Christian life. Truth is, they are useless if they don’t translate into action in our life. I will never get to the place where I have no need for disciplines, but the way he states this is a good way for me to keep perspective on why I need to do them.

pg 246 — “Ministers pay far too much attention to people who do not come to services. Those people should, generally, be given exactly that disregard by the pastor that they give to Christ. The Christian leader has something much more important to do that pursue the godless. The leader’s task is to equip saints until they are like Christ, and history and the God of history waits for him to do this job.” — I’ll just leave that one to speak for itself and we can all ponder to what degree we agree or disagree…

Tivo recorded a brand new episode of MythBusters tonight! First new episode I’ve seen in several months. I think this show entertains me more than anything else on TV — I just haven’t figured out if that says something good or something alarming about me.

Nothing Sacred by Douglas Rushkoff has given me lots to ponder in the last few days since finishing it. This is the second time I’ve referenced it, though probably not the last.

Throughout the book, he comments on that fact that religion has come to a place that focuses too much on experts who impart information. (The focus of his book is Judaism, but I am translating that thinking to my own Christian faith.) Unfortunately, in today’s culture, people no longer trust experts as too many have been turned in to pitchmen. We are far more likely to trust the experiences of those we consider our peers, and are interested in learning from them. His argument is that we must rediscover the conversation and gain input from everyone to redefine the next iteration of what faith will look like. (It is this very principle that motivated me to join in the conversation by means of this blog.) One must wonder what the role of the preacher/teacher in the Christian community looks like in light of this.

However, he goes on to state that in his conclusions that we must get back to the original understanding of the text in it’s original context. Here’s where the expertise of the teacher comes in. As a teacher of the Scriptures, is my primary goal to tell the people what it means, or to tell them what it meant, and open up the conversation for them to discover where it will take them today? This is something Rob Bell has captured, and I think it is why I groove with his teaching so well. As I try to incorporate this into my teaching, I need constant reminders to be the raiser of questions rather than the dispenser of answers.

I read Prayer and the Art of Volkswagen Maintenance by Donald Miller a few weeks ago. If you liked Blue Like Jazz, you’ll want to pick this one up as well. If you haven’t read Blue Like Jazz…smack yourself on the head! Both of these books are just good for the soul. I also ran across some Donald Miller messages here that I’d recommend. I resonate with what he has to say, and how he says it.

Unfortunately, Prayer and the Art is out of print and used copies are going for $35 and up on Amazon. I did a pre-order for $5.50 on Half.com and it got filled about 6 weeks ago. It’s worth a shot until some publisher figures out it needs to be in print again after the success of Blue Like Jazz.

Hmm…reasons to name a website subvergence… (there is truth in each of these!)

1) Because it has kind of a catchy ring to it, and it was available.

2) Because subversive and emergence are catchy little buzzwords these days, so why not combine them into one word and get double the catch and buzz!

3) Because it sounds far less narcissistic (I don’t even know if this is the right way to use this word…I heard Erwin McManus use it a few weeks ago and I was impressed, so I thought I would try it out) than johnchandler.info, which was the original plan

4) Because I really do like the concepts of both words that helped create the title:
subversive — As a Jesus follower, I understand that my purpose is to undermine the corrupted lifestyle that this world is all about. I am subversively trying to show this world what true and full life is through Jesus.
emergence — Not so much the concept of the emergent church, but the theory that systems seem to organize themselves from chaos. It is through dialogue with others that clarity will come. This concept was introduced to me by Douglas Rushkoff in Nothing Sacred. As a matter of fact, that is what stirred me to start this blog and enter into the discussion. If no one else is listening, at least it will give me an outlet to process some things.