I saw a news story yesterday that really reminded me that this whole “Internet era” can, and is, producing some serious breakdowns in our tradition forms of communication, like talking and junk.

Basically, a teen decided to kill his father because his father wouldn’t let him on MySpace and that was his way of communicating with his friends. You can read the story for yourself, its twisted.

Let me just point out that maybe we need to be careful to make sure that all the wonderful ways of communicating while sitting in front of a keyboard and a screen don’t handicap us and keep us from the more personal forms of communicating that have worked for centuries.

Its just a thought. Here’s to face to face conversation!

(the irony of posting this on a blog hasn’t escaped me)

I am a consumer. At times I’m a consumer out of necessity. But, too often I’m a consumer out of habit, envy, or selfishness. It’s only natural, right? We live in a society that is completely consumer driven. If every ad is geared toward me, and every business I enter just wants to make me happy, then why shouldn’t I just think about myself and buy myself nice shiny things?

Here is where the problem lies, businesses are about me because they want something from me, money. And lately, money is something that I don’t like to part with, mostly because of how little I have. So my choice is simple really, continue to consume at an unhealthy rate and go into debt, or confess my compulsion to consume and enjoy what I already have (which is a lot).

I confess:

• To wanting a new MacBook Pro because it’s cool, even though I have a 3 year old Dell that works perfectly fine for my present needs.
• To wanting an iPhone even though my current cell phone does absolutely everything that I need and more.
• To wanting a new pair of shoes even though I have at least 10 pairs in my closet that do nothing but take up space.
• To wanting to buy more books, even though I haven’t read the ones that I already have and should read.
• To wanting a new camera, even though the one we have works great.
• To wanting a new Tivo that records 2 channels at once because the one that records just one channel is lame (even though it works great, and I don’t need to watch any more TV anyway).
• To wanting a new guitar, even though I can’t play the one I have.
• To wanting more things than I can afford, for absolutely no reason at all.

It’s pathetic, I know.

This is where I am, and I am unwilling to be a pathetic, weak willed consumer drone that buys everything that I don’t need any more. Instead I choose to save money, pay off debt, and be free of selfish consumerism. I am convinced that even though this will not give me the immediate gratification that society tells me I need, in the end I will be far better off and much happier.

But, after thinking through all of this, here is the question that really haunts my mind. If I have been so consumer driven in my every day life, how consumer driven have I been in my spiritual life? I guess that’s a question to ponder….

I just got the book Bowling Alone by Robert D. Putnam and I am excited. Today I flew through the first few pages of the book and have already learned some interesting tidbits that I thought I would share. Putnam writes:

As the 1960s ended, sociologists Daniel Bell and Virginia Held reported that “there is more participation than ever before in America”

But as quickly as 1990 we began to see civic organizations completely die out and close the doors. Even though civic participation was at an all time high in the 60′s it seems to have bottomed out in the 90′s.

So, what does this mean? Well, it means that those reaching adulthood in the 80′s would have had only a small opportunity to participate in civic organizations and in culture as a part of a larger community. Those reaching adulthood in the 90′s had virtually no opportunity to participate in civic organizations, because these organizations were dying at the time and would not have even shown up on the social radar of most young adults. And, those people reaching adulthood later than 2000 would have virtually no knowledge that such organizations exist and little reason to think about life as anything but an individual journey.

So the shift in thinking as gone from community minded to individual minded because most adults younger than forty have thrived in a culture of declining togetherness.

This has been my personal experience as well. I can remember my grandmother talking about her weekly Bridge game (it’s cards people) when I was a kid and wondering why she would want to get together and play cards with other people. For some reason the idea of spending that much time with other people for only recreational purposes seemed odd. Now I realize that my thinking was odd.

As I am reading this book and realizing how frighteningly individualistic our culture has become I am more convicted than ever that believers must redeem a culture of community within the body of Christ and secular culture. We must learn to live life together. We must learn to build up and rely on one another. I am convinced that life is better together.

Any thoughts?

So, I’m planting a church, but haven’t completely nailed down where yet. We know that we are called to live and plant inside the perimeter, which pretty much means Decatur or Atlanta for me. This morning I just happened to drive through both, and I was listening to a Mark Driscoll sermon on Nehemiah 11. Mark just happened to be talking about the strategic value of church planting within a large city…fitting. Here are some of his thoughts and some of the reasons I feel the urban call.

Driscoll’s thoughts:

• The city is dense and diverse. So, there are lots more people within walking distance and a broader range of people that believers can connect with.
• People in the city are open to change. The nature of cities is to grow and change much faster than surrounding suburbs. Part of this willingness to change is a willingness to think about new things, like getting to know Jesus.
• The people living within a city tend to be the culture makers. This means that culture tends to flow from within larger cities out to smaller ones. One example is that fashion tends to flow from Paris or New York out to other large cities, and then out to smaller ones. So, if we want to change the way our culture thinks and acts, we need to touch the hearts of the people that have the ability to shape culture.

My reasons to love the city:

• Because the city is dense, it is community driven. People living within closer proximity to one another are bound to effect each others’ lives through relationship. I love community.
• Atlanta happens to be home of the busiest airport in the world, meaning that people from all over the globe tend to pass through Atlanta frequently. Imagine the possibilities for the spread of the gospel to the world if this fact is used strategically. Also, imagine the global reach that a new church is capable of having with such a transportation hub in its back yard.
• Part of the diversity of the city is the fact that the rich tend to live within a few blocks of the poor. I have a heart for the poor and want to see them succeed. And, recently God has especially burdened my heart for poor children in need. I want to create a church that will be intentional about helping the poor.
• The city tends to draw in the innovative, urban types. I like those guys. I feel at home hanging out with both tattooed artist types and pocket protector engineer types. Only in a city will you find these types living close together.
• I like the pace of the city. It’s faster, more intense and (for me) very exciting.

Listening to that sermon and being down here has gotten me pumped. I want to start tomorrow! But, preparation is good and God is sending me into a season of preparation first. For this I am thankful.

While I was learing how to use a speed reading application online I decided to put some text in the reading window from Desiring God which led me to an interesting post at Tall Skinny Kiwi about cussing.

 What do you think? Check it out

Lately I have been thinking about how believers can connect with the people around them that don’t know Jesus. I will probably tackle this issue with some serious posts later, but for now, let’s start with a sarcastic post about how Christians can remain disconnected from people that don’t know Jesus.

Begin sarcasm…

1. Say “thank ya Jesus” as often as possible
   For this method to be truly effective the thanking ratio must be one thank you per 30 seconds of conversation. That way anyone that jumps into the conversation late in the game is still able to here it and feel uncomfortable.
2. Be so involved in church that you are totally out of touch with the rest of the world
   If Christians will just totally close themselves off from the world and become absorbed in the church (attending at least 5 times a week), then we won’t know what is happening in pop culture and won’t be able to carry on a conversation about trivialities such as politics, global warming, the economy, etc.
3. Use lots of “Christianeese” words that no one understands
   The words that top my list to use with non-Christians are principalities, fellowshipping, outreach, sanctified, heresy, rapture, end times, washed in the blood…
4. Remember that you are better than those heathens
   After all, you know Jesus and they don’t, that automatically makes you better, smarter, more moral, and better looking.
5. Always portray the “I’m right, you’re wrong” attitude
   Since Christians know the truth, we should use it to talk down to everyone else.
6. Put a Christian bumper sticker on you car and then cut some people off
   Even better, put a bumper sticker on there, and a fish! That way there is no question that people have been cut off by a Christian, after all, they can recognize the fish within the blur of break lights before they can read a bumper sticker.
7. Call your non-Church friends and ask…wait a second, you have no non-Church friends
   Having no friends that live outside the “Christian bubble” ensures that when you meet someone from the “outside” you won’t be able to connect with them.
8. Refer to everything non-Christian as being from, um …Satan
   Just like the Church lady on Saturday Night Live (pictured on right). It helps if you make the face too.
9. If it ain’t King James, it ain’t Bible
   If ever given the opportunity to share the Bible with a non-Christian make sure to use the King James, that way they won’t understand what you are reading anyway.
10. Be totally unwilling to listen to any differing thoughts, feelings, or points of view.
    If you come to the “discussion table” make sure to come with your ear plugs in, after all, differing points of view are just heresy anyway.

End sarcasm.

The sad thing is, I see these attitudes and actions all the time from well meaning, loving believers. I pray that God will open all our eyes and show us the goofy, sinful, things that we do that keep us disconnected from the rest of the world.

I’m sure I have missed some good ones, please share your thoughts and add to this list.

The past few days I have devoured the book BRUCHKO and desire to take great risks for my Jesus due to the testimony of Bruchko himself, known to english speaking people as Bruce Olson.If you are needing to be reminded of the need to step into someones life with the gospel then read this book. If you are tired of debates and conversations about how to have a big church, get the book. If you want to hear about an amazing(I don’t use this word much) story of faith, risk, death, and glory then read this book. If you need encouragement in the faith…

From the back cover: “Bruce Olson, born in Minnesota and now a citizen of Colombia, is a linguist and graduate of sociology from a South American university. He has won the friendship of four Colombian presidents and appeared before the United Nations. He lives in the jungle on the border of Colombia and Venezuela.”

Take a walk with Bruce into the thick jungles of Colombia and Venezuela and watch God work.

By the way, he went alone when he was 19!