Good Morning—or rather, Good Afternoon. I had to rush off to the eye doctor this morning so everything is too late. We did do up a slightly shorter podcast about the prosperity gospel, correcting my internet mistakes, and the importance of bible translation. Can’t remember what else because I ran immediately out the door. These are so beautiful. I’m half way through this, hope I actually get to finish it. I made this last week and it was delicious. Here... Read more
I happened, even in the busiest of weeks, to come across a preacher who made the following rather surprising declaration in a sermon: “I’ll tell you what the Bible says. Now, do I know what it means? I probably don’t.” He carried on from thence regaling the assembled gathering with anecdotes and explanations about what he thought it meant—which is, don’t you know, the essential job of the preacher—with similar prevarications sprinkled throughout. It is, of course, an impossible task... Read more
I’ve been studiously drowning out the sounds of my family for the last year with some great music. I had to give up on Pandora because I could never use it myself, always being bumped off by a string of children in headphones listening to Enya (! Wow!) so these are all on YouTube, and some of them are pretty grainy. So anyway, I’ve gotta work today, so in lieu of bad tweets or dumb news, here’s what’s been keeping... Read more
[I survived, but it was exhausting.] This is a brilliant thread. Someone got on the stupid internet and wished there would be a way to “rent books”. This is the best summery: “I’d like somewhere I can rent a book.” “At a library you can borrow books for free.” “No, I mean somewhere you can get a book, but temporarily.” “Yes. A library.” “No, like, not buying books, just taking them and returning them after a bit.” I mean, I... Read more
I don’t really have any hobbies. I don’t do any crafting and I’m not overburdened with extra time for what you might call any ‘leisure activities’. But I do think it is important, in the spirit of the age, to do something just for ‘myself’. So a while ago, for self-care and for treats, I began to collect dumb tweets. I have a file on my phone, and every so often, when I happen upon some sparkly gem of human... Read more
Here I am, awake and everything on a Monday morning. It’s pretty discouraging. Wish I were still asleep. Anyway, here is the podcast we taped on Saturday about the continuing Anglican troubles, church growth, a listener question about prayer and liturgy, and I think that’s probably it. I think it might be good, but I don’t know. Listener beware. Here is the thread that Matt referred to. I linked the church growth thing yesterday in my post, so you can... Read more
A friend, intent on pressing all my buttons, brought this curious advice to my attention. It’s all about what to do if your church is very small and you want it to become very big. Say you have a hundred people in your congregation, which is fine, but you’re not reaching your potential, you could be having a thousand people filling up your comfortable, well arranged soft padded chairs—pews are probably not the right kind of seating option for so... Read more
One I was so so honored to be on Alisa Childers’ very cool podcast this week (I mean, she is a brilliant podcaster, not that what made it cool was…oh never mind). We talk more about Rachel Held Evans, in particular how she reads the Bible, and I say ‘um’ at the end of every single sentence, mostly because even though I told everyone to go away and leave me alone, I was doing something “Very Important”, because the internet in... Read more
The First Thing I read this morning that the thing I linked yesterday about the young lady in Holland being euthanatized was incorrect. Apparently some bad or malign reporting made it around the world in a night, and it took a little bit of doing to correct the error. In fact, she died at home with her family after being turned away from a euthanasia clinic for being too young. You can read about it here. Instead she refused any... Read more
This over at the Guardian is good, especially the ending, In contrast, the logic of the romantic is that the centre of gravity in human life has to be outside of oneself to be meaningful. If it’s all about my choices, then human life has withered to the dimensions of my paltry imagination. Some will believe the control held out by autonomy to be liberating. I think it’s about trying to limit our exposure to that which is beyond our... Read more
Preventing Grace
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