A Fool and his Words are Soon Parted

When is it really you talking?

Who shows us the “hidden secrets” of life?

One of the most common slams I see against “The Church” (capitalization intended) is our willingness to throw lots of dollars into facilities that could be “better spent elsewhere.” To be frank (and you be Harold), this is not necessarily an unfair characterization.

What if, instead, we turned the process upside-down, and built a church in reverse? What would that look like? (more…)

In what appears to be the second major PR faux pas of the 2006-2007 season, the National Football League has (for all intents and purposes) said that viewing their games in a bar is acceptable, but watching in a church is not. Now, to be fair, Fall Creek Church in Indianapolis was being pretty stupid. They were charging admission to come to the church to watch the Super Bowl at their “Super Bowl Bash.”

vs (more…)

Monday night, several friends from church were talking about church growth, technology, and other issues, and one of them mentioned Napster and people stealing content. One of the industry responses to this is Digital Rights Management, or “DRM.” Lots of tech people hate DRM, for various reasons, but a common mantra is “information wants to be free.”

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It’s been a long time coming, and I suppose I should have stated this clearly earlier. I have a confession to make. I don’t know the exact value of Pi.

Oh, sure. I know an “approximate” value: 3.1415926535. I know that from memory. But I have to confess that I don’t know the exact value. (more…)

This morning, I was re-reading a friend’s blog, and her perspective on God. Her post was interesting, as were the comments that followed. It made me ask the question above.

Reading the comments reminded me that when I bump across people who feel they have it all figured out, that they’ve definitively answered every possible question about a creator or no creator (and I’m not suggesting that this applies to Tiffany, or any of the commentors on her blog entry), regardless of their educational background or religious affiliation (or non-affiliation), I smile. My smile is not the smug smile of someone who knows more, smiling at the cuteness of those less wise than me. It’s a smile that says “maybe someday I’ll have it figured out like you apparently do, but I’m not there yet.”

Recently, another friend of mine recently said to me, “Tim, if you don’t have questions… if you’ve got it all figured out, your god isn’t big enough.” It seems to me that we all have gods, whether we use a big “G” or a little “g,” and whether we have one, or many. We just choose different things, and sometimes ascribe to them different powers, authority, and ability, but ultimately, they all sound like gods to me.

Oddly enough, the “other friend” I mentioned above is also the senior pastor of my church. Weird thing for a Southern Baptist minister to say, huh?

Tonight, a good friend of mine was complimenting me on my speaking voice after I did some narration for my church’s Living Christmas Tree. (Note: The link is to a tree similar to what my church does. That’s not my church, or our tree.) In accepting his compliment, I acknowleged that I felt that God had blessed me with a voice for public speaking, and felt compelled to put forth my best effort.

He responded by saying “Collossians 3:23… Whatever you do, do it as you would do it unto the Lord and not for men.”

In spite of the fact that I have been active in the Baptist church all of my life (including my time “in utero”), there are times that someone quoting scripture rubs me the wrong way. “Why?” you might ask, since what my friend said seemed completely valid, and perfectly in-context.

The best way for me to describe my negative reaction, is to introduce you to the term that comes to mind, which is the title of this blog: Soundbite theology. It drives me absolutely nutty. (more…)

Tiffany tagged me, so I am therefore obligated by blogging tradition to answer the same list of questions. The theme here, as the title suggests, is books.

Before I dive into the list and my answers, I should point out that I used to read far more books than I currently do. This is in part a result of the Internet, and its vast array of possibilities for reading. (Unfortunately, most of the fiction on the Internet is material that is presented as non-fiction.) I love books. Hopefully, that love will be obvious in this list. (more…)

This morning, I was briefly pondering the question of “Why I am a Southern Baptist,” and the heritage I cannot escape (even if I wanted to). This pondering reminded me of an old joke.

A Southern Baptist was going door-to-door, doing a survey of church-going habits in a neighborhood. He came upon an older man in his yard, introduced himself, and briefly described what he was up to. (more…)