In November, N.T. Wright gave a series of talks at the Harvard University Graduate Student Christian Fellowship entitled Reconstructing Hope. Here’s a link to each talk:

• Why Do Good in a Hopeless World?
• What is Good in a World that Defies Hope?
• Doing Good: What Plus Hope Equals Change?

I appreciated the content of the lectures, but what made it worth my time (and yours) the Q&A that followed each. The questions were varied and thoughtful, as were Wright’s responses. My own Christian theology has been shaped heavily by Wright, so it is intriguing to hear how his ideas are engaged by thoughtful students at Harvard. A few times, it seemed as if he stepped around some questions, but it was a matter of reframing questions that were posed from a different understanding of Christian perspective than what he holds.

In my church planting journey, I’ve had the opportunity to participate in at least four different church planting boot camps. They were put on by four different organizations, so I feel like I’ve been around the block a little.

This morning I finished listening to Spirit-Led Ecclesiology: Following the Spirit Through Church Planting. It was a message given by my friend Jonathan Dodson at an Acts 29 boot camp in Dallas earlier this month. It was very challenging, and helpful, for me. I think it’s one of the most important presentations on church planting I’ve heard. If you are at all connected with church planting, or even church leadership, please add it to your playlist.

For those looking to rotate some new content onto your play list, I give you some of my favorites of late. And if you’ve had your coffee, you might notice a theme here…

• For my Explosions in the Sky or Sigur Ros loving friends I’d suggest you give a listen to Joy Wants Eternity. They are new to me too, but so far, I think I like Must You Smash Your Ears Before You Learn To Listen With Your Eyes best. I find I’m listening mostly to instrumental tunes these days…it’s like a musical score to the story of my life.
• A few months ago, one of my Twitter peeps mentioned The Moth Podcast. (Was it you, Jake Bouma?) It is stories, stories, and more stories. Some are humorous. Some are poignant. Some are both. All of them are engaging.
• Rob Bell was at his best this weekend in his message called Beware the Dogs. He did what he often does so well — placed a small text into the larger story of Scripture to reveal how it mattered then…and now.
• While you are on that Mars Hill Teaching Page, or on their podcast, listen to Brian McLaren’s guest teaching called Which Story Do We Live In. It a great summary of some of his ideas from Everything Must Change.

Did you catch it? The theme? What can I say…it’s my year of the story.

I realized earlier today that my last post on auditory stimulation was lacking. In fact, it was lacking a link to the audio file that made me consider writing that post in the first place. So, here it is:

Belief in an Age of Skepticism, by Tim Keller. This was an open forum with Tim Keller at the University of Cal-Berkeley as part of his tour to draw attention to his new book The Reason for God. (I’m excited to dig into this book after I finish off the little bit of reading I have left for school.) I appreciate the humility and thoughtfulness with which Keller presents, and then engages with questions from the students.

In other words, here are some things I think are worth adding to your iPod for your next commute or exercise time:

• Spirituality of the Cellphone – Shane Hipps spoke at Mars Hill (Grand Rapids)this past weekend. It was a fantastic summary of the thoughts in his book that was both accessible and practical.
• MacBreak Weekly 82: The Double Album – I listen to this Podcast almost every week. Last week, they were joined by Patrick Wilson, the drummer of some relatively obscure band called Weezer. Their conversation centered around how the music industry is effected by the internet. It sounds trite to say, but the networking that happens on the internet is truly causing massive shifts and the conversation around the music industry can serve as an entry point into how it effects other things too…like the church.
• I Will Possess Your Heart – Death Cab for Cutie’s new single. Do I really have to wait until May 13 to hear the rest of the album?

There are a handful of podcasts that I subscribe to, but the Mars Hill Grand Rapids is one of the few that I am pretty faithful about listening to every one of. While I am challenged by and appreciate what Rob Bell has to say just about every week, this past week’s message, Gnats and Camels, is one I want to call other’s attention to. It is Bell at his best as he offers both some cultural background and contemporary importance.

Between our experience with Pathways, classes at school, personal studies, and our dreams of a future church plant, I’ve spent a lot of time processing the mission of the church. And yet those thoughts still seem so unfinished…

Dean gave me the month of May to put some of those thoughts into a teaching series which I just finished today. Here’s links to each mp3 for anyone who is interested:
1 – Ecclesia: Called Out
2 – Ecclesia: The Inbreaking Kingdom
3 – Ecclesia: The Redemptive Kingdom
4 – Ecclesia: A Missional Community

Last week, while mowing, I was trying to catch up on a backlog of audio I’ve downloaded. Up in the queue came “The Gospel and Our Culture” (streaming audio) by NT Wright. Dr. Wright (or Tom as I call him when I pretend we are friends) presented this lecture as part of a lecture series at Second Presbyterian Church in Roanoke, Virginia.

He made a striking parallel that I have never heard before between the contemporary tendencies toward a Gnostic dualism and the ruling forces of empire. In my understanding, empire could be defined as either both political forces or commercial forces such as consumerism. Empire will always by sympathetic toward a religious belief system that is rooted in dualism. Dualism pushes religion toward a private experience of the heart, where it is less of a threat to conspire against the forces of Empire. It is there that it poses the least threat to empire. (Of course, he says it far better than this brief summary, and if you find this remotely interesting, I’d encourage you to go and listen.)

Unfortunately, for followers of Jesus, when our faith is tucked neatly away in our heart, it is also where our faith becomes most difficult to grapple with in everyday life. May we always take care to see how God is present and active in every reality. May we long to see his Kingdom break in as we weigh what it means to follow Jesus in every moment.

While meandering through iTunes tonight, I disovered that Rob Bell and Mars Hill actually have an official podcast up and running. There is even a link at the bottom of their sermon download page. Who knew? Is this some kind of grand conspiracy that has been hidden from me for all this time?

Conrad Gempf emailed me to let me know that, with Zondervan’s permission, he is making Jesus Asked available for free in the form of a audio book/podcast. I’m subscribing.

I’ve said it before, but I appreciate Conrad’s writing, because he brings his scholarly study of Jesus to us in a package that is readable by all. I’ve also recommended this book many times to others in different trainings I’ve done for those who lead in small groups or other discussion settings because of the insights Conrad gives about Jesus’ conversational style.

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