Compass Cinema’s Parables in Cinematic Theology
Small groups leaders everywhere, rejoice! Compass Cinema has produced an impressive new curriculum series that will help us help others engage the Bible in a brand new and dramatic way. Compass Cinema’s new contribution to the world of small groups is called “Cinematic Theology.” The title is, in this particular case, well deserved. Surprisingly, Compass Cinema’s DVD-based curriculum is actually as cinematic - or theatrical - as it is theologically loaded. Do not take that last sentence for granted! Remember, we are living in a day wherein curriculum publishers seemingly burn anything and everything to DVD just so they can tag the words “DVD-based” somewhere on slick packaging designed to rouse consumer longing for comfortable living room furniture. Compass Cinema is not, however, just another Christian curriculum publisher. Their product actually deserves to be called “Cinematic Theology.” It is extremely well done, as far as theatrical quality and theological breadth is concerned. Compass Cinema has produced a DVD-based curriculum wherein high theatrical quality is fused with theological depth and practical application.
A New Kind of Study: Modern Parables
Compass Cinema’s Modern Parables: Living in the Kingdom of God, Vol. I, is an incredibly holistic approach to small group parable study. This curriculum not only opens an astonishingly fresh and fascinating window through which participants can view story in brand new ways via theatrical and modern reinterpretation, but also properly builds upon this new and revelatory foundation by following modern reinterpretation with seriously thorough and practical application founded upon ancient parabolic principles. Yes, it’s a new kind of study! It’s one that many, many small group leaders would appreciate. Read More »
James Fowler’s Six Stages of Faith Development
I have long been interested in developmental psychologist James Fowler’s Stages of Faith. The Stages offer readers a socio-scientific sort of glimpse into developmental aspects of faith that may - or may not - personally resonate. More often than not, people introduced to the list can in fact place themselves in one stage or another. Sometimes personal experiences reveal a broad span across a few stages too.
Fowler’s Stages, if nothing else, can serve as one tool with which those who are dedicated to critical self-examination and self-awareness can semi-accurately gauge their faith journey. Read More »
A Simple Christianity in a Postmodern World
Jesus is popular. Everyone has an opinion about Jesus, it seems. This is not a new phenomenon; it has in fact always been the case. In the first century people formed more than a few groups around their opinions of Jesus of Nazareth. Many believed he was God in the flesh; others believed he was a mere wise man; still others believed him to be some sort of Gnostic incarnation of some sort of secret knowledge. Jesus is a historical figure who naturally brings out the strongest opinions in people. This reaction is especially complicated in this postmodern setting we are all living in presently. Jesus merely offers one of many potential ways to be saved in an age wherein meta-narrative has been deemed less than reliable, as far as expansive Truth building is concerned, and personal opinion, in some sort of strange philosophical twist, has been promoted to Truth. Today, perhaps more than ever before, followers of Jesus need to be able to properly differentiate between opinion and the basic truths of the Biblical story. Read More »
Google Page Rank Update and Text Link Ads
It seems that this blog has survived the recent Google page rank update. Many, many sites have experienced a drop in page rank, most likely do to the fact that they are selling text-link ads. I was tempted to sell a few of those things, but never did because I suspected Google would someday penalize the sites that do. I think I made the wise choice, given what has happened to many sites over the past week. My site catalog scores after the latest update: Tribe: PR5; Scribe: PR4; IMG: PR4. Not too bad!
Jack-O-Lantern
We made a few jack-o-lanterns this evening. Good times …
The Shack by William P. Young
I have read a few books that have changed my life. These kind of books - the kind that change your life - are exceedingly rare. So rare, in fact, that I think that I have only collected a handful of them during my years of searching and reading. The titles that quickly come to mind are: The Kingdom of God is within You by Leo Tolstoy; The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life by Hannah Whitall Smith; Peace Child by Don Richardson; Night by Elie Wiesel; Reflections of a Peacemaker by Mattie J.T. Stepanek. These wonderful books are affective and effective. Reading them moves one’s mind and heart in a way that begs a personal change for the better. This holistic combination of affective and effective unction is exceedingly rare and seems to only happen when an inspirational force greater than the author is involved in the writing. Good books inform a reader; fantastic books inform and emotionally stir readers. That said, I honestly confess that I have never been more informed and stirred than I was last evening as I devoured page after page of a book by William P. Young called The Shack. The Shack is, as a result, now included in my personal list of rare and life-changing reads. Yes, it is that good! Read More »
Redemption is a Relational Agreement
Re-creation involves covenant. Redemption involves agreement between God and humanity. When we, as individuals, hear God’s irresistible and relational love song, we are made immediately aware of those things in our lives that pull us away from God and God’s best for our lives. Deep repentance follows. A throwing off all of those things that the Spirit reveals to be detrimental to the new relationship happens, voluntarily. God’s love does not force this, but it opens the way for each of us to walk through.
Things Fall Apart: Sin, Redemption, and Free Will
Humanity was created perfect and in the very image of God, according to the Biblical story. Humanity, however, chose to separate itself from God by succumbing to the temptation to become its own God. Our embrace of this temptation led to a cataclysmic break in our original relationship with God. We are constantly tempted by Satan to crumple and discard our trust and dependence upon God and instead rely upon our own self-effort and humanistic delusions of a divine-like grandeur. Satan persistently lures us into believing we are capable of becoming our own God. Jesus was not exempt from Satan’s chess game. Jesus was sorely tempted in the wilderness just as Adam was tempted in the Garden. The temptation was eerily similar in both cases. Satan’s goal, in both cases, was to convince his targets that they could in fact be their own God. Adam succumbed to this temptation and the world was changed; Jesus held tight to God and defeated Satan and the temptation. The world was changed again. Humanity, in Adam, failed; Jesus set things right. Humanity, in Christ Jesus, has salvation; just as in Adam we have Sin. Read More »
Reflections of a Peacemaker by Mattie J.T. Stepanek
I highly recommend that everyone pick up Reflections of a Peacemaker: A Portrait through Heartsongs by Mattie J.T. Stepanek. Mattie died at age thirteen from dysautonomic mitochondrial myopathy, a neuromuscular disease. Mattie spent most of his time writing his Heartsongs, which are collected in Reflections of a Peacemaker. I have yet to find anything as inspirational as Mattie’s Heartsongs. Thank you, Mattie.
Idol Chatter by Beliefnet
Idol Chatter is a new Beliefnet blog dedicated to religion and pop culture.
