Got slammed...

While I was blog surfing the other day, I came across a post that kind of puzzled me. Apparently some anti-evangelical church movement website went after Corey Mann about something he said (I think), you can read it here. In response to all that, what I will say from all the bible classes, lectures, and seminars I've attended at Bethel from the deep exegetical theologians who teach there, I don't see a single one of them throwing up flags about teaching with stories, including men who actually translated the versions of the bible that they are quoting from. Any scripture taken out of context can be used horribly. The jewish culture at that time put such a high priority on scripture memorization and study that maybe Jesus was talking about the fact that while his disciple's were used to extensive scriptural investigation, the gentiles he was speaking to were not, so he choose not to go over their heads. His disciple's already knew who Jesus was, and were in fellowship with him, but these people were not, so these parables were what it took to get through to those who "will be ever hearing, but never understanding." There's no way I could believe that Jesus was intentionally trying to hide truth from his children. Whether you're and EC'er or a Liturgical church person or an emerger or a whatever you are, we can't go around qouting one verse like that without a historical context and just say that's the deal. I don't want to slam people who come from churches who teach by diving into scripture and teaching from it like there's no tommorow. I grew up in one of those churches, and I still do if anyone's ever been to GCC on a thursday night. I just don't understand why we can't all see that Jesus taught different ways, so churches naturally will all teach different ways. Jesus wasn't just the story teller, or the theologian, or the "really nice guy" and somebody mentioned. He formed his speaking based on who he was talking to. Our church has a target people group it tries to reach, so we base our speaking that way I guess. Same thing with my church back home. And if you compare the two, they are completely different, yet they are both getting the work of the kingdom accomplished. I wouldn't expect Dr. Carpenter or Dr. Meister or any of our Religion and Philosophy prof's to come to a place like GCC for teaching. However they've got a little more bible know how than the average Johny "I work at the gas station but I love my family and my kids and I want some God too" Churchgoer does. And ya know what, sometimes those wise old folks sacrifice getting fed on sunday morning to serve a church that's helping others. They don't have to, but it's a choice they make. I agree with both sides on which way to teach, it doesn't have to be so black and white all the time. What I don't want to see is the comment one man made about people teaching with stories becasue they're too lazy to dive into scripture. That should never be the case, and I pray to God that it's not the case anywhere. But on the other side of that coin, I don't want to go to a church where they're digging into deep deep scriptural interpretation because the pastor and his cronies want to show off how much they know, or because they feel like they're too smart to sing "I love you Lord" a few times in a row. Phillipians 1:15-18 seems to address this idea of why people do what they do pretty clearly, but as long as Jesus name does not get dragged through the mud, and people can see that God loves them, that He pursued them, and now He wants us to recognize that and pursue Him, then it's all good baby.

My place in this world

Well these last few weeks have been pretty dag-gum busy. After playing the last two weeks of lifelines, new communities, and week end services, plus lifelines trip to Nappanee, I think I've developed some carpal tunnel. But man, I had a blast. Some people asked me if I was tired or if I was sick of it, but to be honest, I have never had a better two weeks. I walked off the stage at church saturday afternoon saying "I can't believe I get to be a part of this." As of today, I'm interning out at GCC, and I really couldn't be happier. I don't know how I get to be this blessed but this internship feels like home to me. I've had a lot of jobs in my life and I never got up in the morning excited to do any of them. But I'm so overjoyed ot have this internship, I bet I'm getting on some people's nerves over there. Anyway, thats my news, and I couldn't be happier.

In other news, I would just like to express my appreciation for the movies I'm watching. Lately, I've been watching the movie "Get Shorty" directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, and it's sequal that just came out last year, "Be Cool." I love these movies, because they're my kind of humor. I love a plot that winds all over the place, yet it's so perdictable. These movies are great, so check em out. Just make sure you watch them in order.

Am I really an adult?

The older I get, the more I'm realizing how much I'm accountable for my own actions. Take this photo for example. I was at the Omaha Zoo a few weeks ago and there was about a waist high fence keeping us out of the elephant paddock. Now there was also a ditch that was about ten feet deep four feet past the fence, but that didn't keep the elephants from feeding on the tree's on our side of the fence. I thought to myself...."There is nothing stopping me from hopping this fence and feeding this thing myself, so I did just that. Now if I was a kid, my parents most assuredly would have chewed me out. After I did it, I was so pumped about the fact that I'm old now and my parents/chaperones/leaders/or whatever can't yell at me anymore for doing stuff like that. But then I also realized that if I get caught, these people aren't going to turn me over to my parents/chaperones/leaders/or whatever either. They're either going to arrest me or kick me out. I'm not sure which of those scenario's I like better.

Men are from mars.....but mars is more sensitive than it makes out to be

So I was doing some realizing today, and I began to wonder about something. I've noticed that whenever one of my guy friends get's a girlfriend, his other friends start complaining about how they never see him, how he spends all his time with her, and how they act differently around the girl. But on the female side, whenever a girl I know get's a boyfriend, all I notice is that her friends, for the most part, are just happy for her. They may get a little of the "always a bridesmaid never a bride" syndrome, but for the most part I don't see them complaining. And I could be wrong about that, since I'm not a girl obviously, but what's the deal with that? Why are guys so pissy when one of their friends starts hanging out with their girlfriend? I'm not saying I'm exempt either. Almost all of my close friends have girlfriends right now, and to be honest it's kinda weird knowing that if I really want to hang out with them, I either need to invite their girlfriend, or they're pretty much not coming. I know I've ditched my guy friends on a few occasions to hang out with girfriends I've had, but it doesn't keep me from complaining about it when it comes back at me. It's also interesting how most of the time guys say that their friend acts differently around their girlfriend. Now I can't speak for all men, but I know for a fact that if most of my friends acted the same way around their girlfriends as they did around me, they wouldn't have a girlfriend. Do women get like this when their friends start dating? It doesn't seem like it to me. Just some food for thought.

A whole new world...

Well, it seems like all my GCC pals aren't hanging out in xanga-land, the myspace-o-sphere, or the facebook galaxy anymore. So here I am creating my fourth blog, yes I said my fourth blog. I'd feel bad about it if I was wasting something, but cyberspace is useless space, so I might have as many useless spaces as I want.