SMITCHing

The Fox Broadcasting series Glee is hit, and as one who makes a living keeping a finger on the pulse of pop culture, I'm familiar with the show. For those less so, it features a remarkably talented cast of young performers who are all triple threats: they can act, sing, and dance. The show's story lines always incorporate impressive production numbers, renderings of Broadway show tunes, classic Billboard hits, and current chart-topping Pop. On the face of it, the show is entertaining as the fictional high school glee club members— who are all high school archetypes—navigate the rapids of an Ohio high school, replete with social cliques, fleeting love-sick pairings, and petty power struggles. It's also preachy. For example, one of the characters, Curt, is openly gay, as is the show's creator. Story lines repeatedly return to Curt's struggle to assert his identity, find acceptance, and ultimately love. In resolving the dramatic conflict, episodes usually present an et...

Recently on Pastors.com, Rick Warren offered a strategy for keeping congregations involved in a sermon when they display increasingly shorter attention spans. His advice is practical and probably would work in most churches. Therein lies the problem. He writes: "In an upcoming book The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains ,writer Michael Carr suggests the Internet is shrinking our attention spans. It’s not a new argument. And it’s not universally agreed upon either. But even President Obama recently got into the debate saying information can become a distraction because of our fascination with “iPods and iPads and Xboxes and PlayStations.” But regardless of why , most people would agree that attention spans are shrinking. That means the people you and I preach to each week are less likely to sit and focus as long as congregations could a generation ago. We can complain about it and we can let it frustrate us. But we can’t change it. Yet, that does...

This is a repost of a blog entry that first appeared on Spreading Goodness , and then again on the Beaverton Foursquare Worship blog . I'd highly recommend both. My wife and I were recently privileged to spend several hours in unstructured worship along with 30 or 40 Stanford students. Our eldest daughter is a junior at the university and, along with a few dozen others, spends Saturday nights in worship modeled after the International House of Prayer . The group began as a small gathering in a dorm room. They simple preferred to spend time together in God’s presence to a standard college Saturday evening. These few found more joy spending time with Christ than they ever did spending time taxing a tap at the local fraternity. Before long they had attracted others and outgrew the dorm room, arranging for space in the student union. That doesn’t surprise me. The time we shared with them was tender, refreshing, and encouraging. It was also remarkable to see students who bear such i...

Tested and Proven | Men of Integrity While I appreciate the heart behind this, the devotional is incredibly Cartesian . The thesis? I believe God when He proves that what He promises is proven true in my life. God's in the docket and I'm the judge. What a stark contrast to Jesus, who when faced with the ultimate temptation to prove God true, declined by quoting Scripture: "You shall not put the Lord your God to the test."

I work part time at a large church designing a lot of creative elements for worship gatherings and the promotion of various ministries. The rest of the time, I design communications for my clients. I appreciate the chance to use my talents on behalf of the church, but it always raises a question for me: as Christians, do we find Christ attractive? What fuels the demand for my services at the church is the underlying assumption that a very simple presentation of Jesus as given by His Word is somewhat lacking. We need more programs, more ministry that meets peoples felt needs, and more attractive promotional communications so that everyone knows what we offer. After all, who could possibly be interested in a simple unadorned presentation of Jesus after watching something like Avatar, or having every "felt need" indulged at the local mall? In support of more attractive programming and communications, some argue that people aren't tired of Jesus, or the Gospel, they...