11:11 for 2011 Book Giveaway Contest Results!

January 11, 2011 By Kurt Willems 2 Comments

I want to thank all of you who participated in this contest.  It really helped me to continue to get the word out about this blog and the conversations I love being a part of on Facebook!  What a blessing it is to be a facilitator of Christ-centered dialogue!  Also, I believe that God is going to work in your life through whatever book you get…

*** If you are listed as a winner, I will be sending you a personal email to get your mailing address.  Please respond by the end of the week, so I can get this all taken care of.

HERE ARE THE WINNERS!

Jason Hess
Terri-Anne Williams
Jason Kinzel
Josh Wray
Ryan VanderHelm
wjcsydney
Jean
stephanie Tolle
martha mouner
Jo Stollings
Joshua
Filed Under: Books, Confessions 2 Comments

11:11 for 2011 (Easy Book Giveaway Contest!)

January 1, 2011 By Guest Contributor 30 Comments

11:11… this has been a haunting number in my life for the past 5 years.  Most of my college friends can attest to this.  It is a number that I see on the clock at the oddest moments.  For instance, I have seen it on my phone three times in a row, completely without intention (am, pm, and am again!).  I have seen it on the same digital clock/temperature sign at the bank I drive past on the freeway two nights in a row (when not in routine).  These are two simple examples of the nightmare-ish phenomenon that has plagued my soul for quite some time.  In fact, it has become a number that is believed to be “prophetic” in some odd way.  My friends have jokingly taken bets about how the number is prophetic about my eventual death, or at the least, my demise!  Well, this blog post is to prove them wrong!

11:11 for 2011 is a book giveaway contest that capitalizes on those haunting numbers as we break into this 11th year of the new millennium.  I want to redeem this prophecy of doom to be a number that foretells of good things that are coming for this new year!  Good for you and good for me.  So, here is the deal…

11 Books — I will be giving away 11 books including: Shane Claiborne / Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove / Enuma Okoro‘s new transformational book – Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals; Ron Martoia‘s -The Bible as Improv: seeing and living the script in new ways; John Walton‘s – The Lost World of Genesis One; Scot McKnight‘s – One.Life: Jesus Calls, We Follow; Greg Boyd‘s – The Myth of a Christian Religion; and Rachel Held Evans‘ – Evolving in Monkey Town.

I am going to give them away to 11 winners who will be randomly selected.  To enter you must fulfill ALL of the following requirements:

1) 11 Facebook Friend Suggestions — Go to 11 different Facebook friends profiles and suggest to them that they add me as a friend (via “suggest friends” option on the bottom of the left column of the their page).  Here, I am hoping you add folks who would be interested in the conversations we have here on Pangea Blog and on my personal FB page.  

2) Subscribe to the Pangea Blog by Email– On the top right corner of this site, below the banner, enter your email address to subscribe to receive email notifications when a new post publishes.

3) Promote 11:11 for 2011 on your FB Page! — Post a link to this blog article with a brief promotion of the contest as a “Status Update” on your FB page (and if you want to, feel free to also spread the word on Twitter :-) )

Once you have done these three things: 1) Suggest to 11 friends that they add me as a friend on FB, 2) Subscribed to this site via email, and 3) promoted 11:11 for 2011 as a “status update”….

4) Leave me a comment indicating you have completed the above 3 steps on this post to secure your spot in the contest.  You are welcome to tell me your top three choices, which I will consider when sending out the book to you if you are selected.  If you are a winner, I will notify you personally by email (to get a mailing address, which I promise not to share with anyone) and will have a follow-up post announcing the winners on Tuesday January 11th.

Thanks for participating in this fun redemption of such an evil number!  You are helping me to spread the word about the blog, and I will be hopefully adding to your library…  Good luck  and thanks again!!! :-)

Filed Under: Books, Confessions, Greg Boyd, John Walton, Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, New Monasticism, Ron Martoia, Shane Claiborne Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , 30 Comments

An "unpopular" 4th of July Post… Why this is Not a Day to Celebrate…

July 3, 2009 By Kurt Willems 24 Comments
UPDATE: After you read this post and comment, Mason pointed out a very good article from Christianity Today written by Historical Christian Scholar Mark Noll (he is read in seminaries across America)… It asks similar questions from a historical perspective.
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ORIGINAL POST:

I want to start out this post with a huge disclaimer… what I am about to say may sound radical or irrational to some. I also want to say that I have a great respect for those who differ with me on this issue that I am about to discuss, so I invite your ideas on this post as well. Finally, I have a great deal of respect for those who are Christians and who ‘support’ military and our troops. Those who serve our country (although I may disagree with it to some extent from my standpoint theologically) deserve respect for their sacrifices and I am glad to have some friends who have served or are serving in the armed forces.

With all of that said, I have been struggling with the idea of the 4th of July for the past year or so. Each year we get together and remember the day when America won her freedom. We reenact the story through live action plays, we set off fireworks as a display of joy, and we sing prideful songs about our freedom from oppression. In many ways, we treat Independence Day like the Jews in Jesus’ day (and even to this day) remember the exodus from Egypt. Now here is the issue I have: No matter what position you hold in regards to being a Christian and war (I happen to lean towards a nonviolent stance), I cannot justify glorifying the ‘wining’ of our independence from our friends across the pond, even from a ‘just war theory’ viewpoint. How can we celebrate that we killed thousands upon thousands of people (MANY OF WHICH WORSHIPED THE SAME GOD!) over the fact that they were taxing our mammon with out giving us representation in parliament or whatever?!!!!! This seems just plain wrong!!!!! Yes, there might be some kind of justice issue here, but the greater injustice to taxation without representation is the violent killing of our brethren.
Is there anyone out there who agrees with me or am I just crazy [if you disagree take it easy on the crazy comments (-; ]? If you agree, why? If not, tell me your thoughts on this historic day and Christian biblical theology.
Filed Under: Confessions, Culture, Nationalism, Nonviolence, Passover, Politics, Powers Tagged With: , , 24 Comments

If you could press "delete" on a Bible passage, which one would you erase?

June 6, 2009 By Kurt Willems 22 Comments
UPDATE: Woodland Hills Bridge ‘podrishioner’ Site adds more to the conversation! Click on the link to hear several insightful comments including Greg Boyd! (June 27, 09)
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ORIGINAL POST:

I want to start this post by confessing something: there are sections of Scripture that would be much easier to simply erase. If God would give me a “delete” button to use on the Bible, I would be tempted to eliminate the portions that give me the most grief. Before I go any further, let me make a few things clear. (1) I believe that the WHOLE Bible is “God breathed” and our infallible source of truth in all matters of faith and life. (2) Even though there is a part of me that would like to “delete” certain verses, I am grateful to God for these passages because they stretch us to live in tension… which leads me to embracing grace and mystery in deeper ways.

Now that the disclaimers have been dealt with, I don’t want to hear any comments about how: “Kurt doesn’t take the Bible seriously” or “Kurt is so liberal that he is wanting to ignore the difficult parts of the Bible” et cetera.
So, as I have been reflecting, if I could press the “delete” button on parts of the Bible, I would immediately get rid of all the passages that seem to condemn homosexuality. This one issue has caused so much grief in our culture that it would be easier to not have to deal with it. I have friends that land on both sides on the issue of how we interpret these passages. But seeing how much frustration and pain that this issue brings with it, both for those who are inside the church and on the outside, part of me wishes that God would not have spoken on the issue at all. If this was the case, evangelism would be easier for the conservatives and perhaps the liberals would be willing to look at the Bible through a more trusting lens.
This post is not primarily about homosexuality. What I am interested in is hearing from you about the verse, passage, or sections of the Bible that you would “delete” if God gave you the option to do so and why. You can agree with my selection if you would like to (or critique if you must), but I also would love to hear about other passages as well.
Filed Under: Confessions, Faith Journey, Theology 22 Comments
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