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As per my previous post, I have had time to digest John Hammett’s paper, and in order as they occurred to me as I read it, here are my thoughts.
1. Tone. First thing I noticed was the tone of the paper, which is certainly not hostile, and is warm, and open. Makes a change from many critiques, thank you Dr Hammett.
Technorati Tags: Brian McLaren, Church, Conversant with the Emerging Church, D A Carson, Emergent, Emergent-UK, Emerging, Emerging Church, ETS, Evangelical Theological Society, Jason Clark, John Hammett, Theology
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Don Carson’s book ‘Conversant with the Emerging Church’, caused quite a stir in it’s criticism of emergent and the emerging church. Emergent USA, put out a response to this and other criticisms, that requested other academics to respond to academic critiques such as Carson’s, to help us and keep Emergent accountable.Stanley Mills P.hD, a friend of Emergent wrote a detailed response to Carson that many of us found helpful. A more recent response, taking up this challenge/request directly is by Dr John S. Hammett, professor of Theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary who offers and assessment of Emerging Church.
You can read about his response and download his paper here. Unlike Stanley Mills, this is a response from someone not directly immersed in Emergent or Emerging church. Thanks to Anthony Billington from LST for passing this paper to me, and for letting me know that it was presented at the recent Evangelical Theological Society Conference earlier this month.
I’m digesting it at the moment and will write some of my thoughts tomorrow.
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Whilst I am an apple addict, I have been partial to the xbox as a games console, despite it being made by microsfot. I have found that halo, halo 2, medal of honor, and currently Half Life 2, are the kind of games that allow me to relax from work.So I have sold everything I could on e-bay, bargained with my son for a joint christmas and birthday present, and put my deposit down on the new x-box 360. I plan to break it in with Perfect Dark Zero, a curry with my son, and an evening if trying it out this weekend. I hope the wait has been worth it. Just over two days to go now.
But after lunch with a new friend last friday (Brett Jordan who has an a great blog), who is an apple fan, he asked me why I was not looking at the Nintendo Revolution. I must admit that I associate it with my son’s game boy, and Super Mario – not really my genre – but inspired by Brett, I’ve been taking a look at the Revolution and it looks intriguing.
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If you want a trip to Brussels, Belgium, or are nearby, it would be great to see you at this gathering. Filip de Cavel and Antenna ‘06 are hosting this event, that I will be taking part in and speaking at. More info and registration information is here.
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Apparently the average person works for 40 hours per week in the European Union. Until this summer, I have worked far more than that. Being bi-vocational, for several years, meant worked in excess of 90 hours a week at times. Even going into this summer I was clocking in weeks of 60-70 hours.
Now many jobs are demanding of time, and being a pastor/minister is one those vocations that takes up alot of time. Yet I am have suffered from workaholism, and being in ministry has been something that suited that tendency well.
Yet something happened to me this summer on sabbatical. God did something in me that found me at peace in a way I haven’t been for a long time, he challenged my workaholism, and the the need to trust him, not my output.
And maybe getting older, I am finally slowing down. Anyhow I am putting in 40-50 hour weeks. By my previous years it feels down right lazy, but the difference has been liberating. And people are noticing the difference in me, in good ways.
Technorati Tags: Working Hours, Work
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David Allen, who wrote the book, ‘Getting Things Done’, has a great blog, here. I found his book so helpful for tips for handling my volume of e-mails. His blog is full of easy to implement ideas for getting organised.Technorati Tags: Blogs, David Allen
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Seems google have a web site for almost everything these days. Well if you’ve missed it Google has a video site that ‘offers viewers a way to see material from archived TV programs, educational videos, personal productions and more’. There is also the ability to upload your own videos. In terms of sorting through the videos Google offer an official Google Video Blog.But my favorite is the unofficial ‘Google Video of the Day’. This site goes through the videos and then posts one per day deemed to be of most interest. See amongst many other things clips of an octopus devouring a shark, a redneck rollercoaster, a crying Darth Vader eating pie.
Technorati Tags: Google, Google Video of the Day, Video
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‘The Archbishop of Canterbury has delivered a clear, concise and comprehensible lecture setting out the basics of Christian doctrine’…declares Ruth Gledhill (Times religious correspondent). You can read the lecture here in full.
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Regarding the Atonement, he said, ‘Christians have always found it hard to say exactly how this works. Some speak of Jesus taking the punishment for sin in our place, some speak of him offering himself as a sacrifice. Some speak of him winning a victory over Satan and setting all of us who are prisoners free. It seems that there is no one way of saying this correctly.’
Technorati Tags: Archbishop of Canterbury, Atonement, Belief, Christian, Basics, Rowan Williams
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I’m sure this will fill up quickly, get here for more details.
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I watched the film Crash last night. It is going into my list of favorite films ever. It’s one of those films that haunts you, floating along in your subconscious, and coming to mind every once in a while.Taking the idea of peoples lives going so fast they crash into each other, the film is full of cars and crashes too. The main characters that you think will guide you through the film unravel, and the more distasteful characters, turn out to have pain that makes you care for them.
I couldn’t guess where the film was going, and the meander and intersection through these peoples lives, was profoundly moving. Issues of racism, illness, mental health, abuse, poverty, flow together, in something that was beautiful.
I’m off to buy the soundtrack.
