:: M squared T ::

:: Friday, May 30, 2003 ::

Moving On

If you hadn't already gathered by my more oblique references in previous posts, I'm moving from the Chicago area to Champaign, IL to be a part of a ministry to the University of Illinois community. I am going to be developing mission opportunities and student mission leaders over the next year.

So tomorrow I am loading a truck and moving downstate. This means that my blogging will likely be on hiatus until I can get my phone/internet connection figured out. Hopefully, that will be less than a week. Maybe it can get worked out by Tuesday.

Peace be with you all.

M Squared T

:: Matt 5/30/2003 07:50:00 PM :: permalink :: comments (0) ::
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I guess the joke got old...

Anyone who ever had to read my handwriting knows that I engage in micro-writing. When I would take notes in class I could get two or three lines in between the "college rule" on the paper. Ergo, I decided that it would be appropriate to carry my micro-writing out on to the web.

However, after several complaints as to its readability (the latest being from Irene), I have chosen readability over humor and upped the font size. It looks weird to me right now. Maybe I'll reduce it to some sort of median size, but I'll try this for a few days... let me know what you think...

:: Matt 5/30/2003 10:58:00 AM :: permalink :: comments (0) ::
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Ascension

Happy Ascension Day!!!

(Yeah, I know I'm a few minutes late and this'll post like it's Friday.)

Let's not forget the ascension! It's more than just a convenient way to get Jesus from Earth to Heaven.

In the ascension Jesus entered into glory, completing the work of redemption. "In his death he destroyed death, rising he made all creation new," ascending, he brought to fulfilment God's intentions for humanity. Human flesh is in the full presence of God, and it is not destroyed. This is the witness to the ultimate glorification of all who believe, that we, too will be glorified and reign with him. There, he continues the work of re-creating all creation, to be put in place at the end of time. He will come again, in that glory, to set all things right. This is the promise we have. This is good news.

Christ is ascended! Let all creation sing! Our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed!

:: Matt 5/30/2003 01:03:00 AM :: permalink :: comments (0) ::
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Latest adventures

A friend and I decided to drive in to downtown Chicago tonight. It's my second-to-last night as a resident of the 'burbs, and we wanted to enjoy "being in Chicago."

So we went down to a very "Chicago" place: the Billy Goat Tavern, on Lower Michigan & Lower Hubbard. (It's right across Michigan Ave. from Tribune Tower, and underground.) The Billy Goat is a small basement-level bar and grill always showing a Chicago pro sports game on the TV over the bar. It's famous for its "cheezeborgers" (yes, that's how they spell it). Since it's right across from the Trib & WGN, oftentimes reporters from the paper come in on lunch. All the big names are on the walls - having visited regularly. Mike Royco is prominent.

So we were sitting there, eating our double cheezeborgers, and a TV camera crew came in. They started filming various people in the restaurant, and asked if they could film me eating a 'burger. I said, "Sure - who ya workin' for?" They said, "ESPN." Isn't that random? I might get on ESPN. I guess I looked like a typical customer. So while most people get on ESPN for their athleticism, I got filmed eating a very unathletic burger.

What the heck?

:: Matt 5/30/2003 12:16:00 AM :: permalink :: comments (0) ::
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Blogging about blogging II

It's really amusing to watch everyone looking for their own picture on Cre8d's post. And who knows? This blog-world's getting so friendly I might post my own picture sometime soon. :)

As to my economic answer last evening: all affluence needs to mean for now is that we're not likely to be subsistence herders in Kazakhstan spending most of our energy just surviving. Then again, who knows?

I find blogging a great medium for the exchange of ideas. I'm interested in learning to be a disciple of Jesus Christ - so my blog interests are going to be focused in that direction (like everything else, I hope). And I value listening to other people from all around the world - whether they share that interest or not.

Of course, one of the nice things about blogging is that it's a conversational, "unfinished" medium. So I'll leave it at that.

:: Matt 5/28/2003 03:12:00 PM :: permalink :: comments (0) ::
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Blogging about blogging

Bene Diction is asking some good questions this evening about blogging and the god-blogs (ooohboy, I said "god-blogs" for the first time).

He references Fred Peatross' rant about blogging, which says bloggers blog for four reasons.

Here is my response to Bene Diction, et al.:

Yeah, people blog for those four reasons. But I think there's more. I, for one, blog to continue some conversations and start others. I also post random stuff I find on the 'net that I find interesting that I think people who read my daily stuff would find interesting. And yes, I "share." Unfortunately, my interlocutors are a bit passive (if they are there at all).

I think your other questions are insightful. I have purposely not published a picture of myself so as not to reveal "age" and "color" so directly. Better to keep people guessing.

I think that the "god-blogosphere" is made up of those who have the money to own computers, the computer literacy (read "education") to publish through blogger or somesuch other publishing tool and the leisure (permitted by some level of affluence) to read, ruminate and respond to life via blogs.


What do you think?

:: Matt 5/27/2003 11:34:00 PM :: permalink :: comments (0) ::
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De Dei Ecclesia

As many of you know, I've been doing a lot of thinking and talking and writing about how changes in the church need to affect Theological Education. I think and write from the perspective of one who is in Seminary, so many of you non-Sem. types might say, "why'd it take you so long to come to that conclusion.

So bear with me.

Two links of interest along those lines. The first is from good ol' Andrew Careaga, with a list of five books on the Internet that I should be reading. They're saying a lot that I am, and I didn't realize they existed. Ay, me. Check them out!

Second, there's a post by a guy I don't know at an unidentified seminary that has read my mind. Check it out. Tell me what you think. This is big.

:: Matt 5/26/2003 11:26:00 PM :: permalink :: comments (0) ::
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Whew!

After a crazy few days, I've finally finished one of my two papers. Can't say it's one of my best. Oh well... It's done. One more to go, and I'll be doing that after I move, most likely. For now, it's packing, packing, packing. I really oughta throw some stuff out. I really should. But we'll see how much fits in my new room...

I'm moving out on Saturday morning, moving in Saturday afternoon (right after lunch if possible) and then driving back up here for my second-to-last Sunday at St. B's.

Lord, help me!!!

:: Matt 5/26/2003 10:11:00 PM :: permalink :: comments (0) ::
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Hey folks... I just discovered that some people can't get the "comments" to show up on their browsers... If any of y'all are having trouble with that, e-mail me (at the "contact" posted above) and let me know what browser version and system you're using... and comment away while your're at it...

:: Matt 5/22/2003 09:21:00 PM :: permalink :: comments (0) ::
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Pilgrim's Progress Revisited

'Nuff said...

:: Matt 5/22/2003 01:11:00 AM :: permalink :: comments (0) ::
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Philip, the Ethiopian and Evangelism

This previous Sunday (18 May 2003) I preached a sermon at St. B's based on the text of Acts 8:26 - 40. In it I argued for a new perspective on evangelism. The evangelical church has discovered that the evangelism modeled by many of our 'street preachers' and our 'contact evangelism' programs where people distribute tracts are no longer effective in getting people to convert to Christianity. In fact, these models have become somewhat of an embarrassment to many (including myself) who often have to live among people turned off by our methodology.

In Acts 8, we see Philip employing a different method. Yet it is more than just a different method; it holds different values entirely. Philip approaches the Ethiopan listening to what he is reading. He connects the Ethiopian's life and questions to the story of the risen Christ. And beyond telling a story, Philip acts as the risen Christ himself for the Ethiopian. All of this elicits in the Ethiopian not just a change of philosophy but in fact new life.

We today are called to engage people around us. We listen to their stories, reflect on our stories, and connect our stories and their stories to the great Story of God in Jesus Christ. In doing so we offer the Resurrection perspective on Jesus' life, thus on our own lives. The Resurrection inherently makes the story "good news" because the Resurrection takes care of whatever evil, sin and death we are dealing with. In the Resurrection of Jesus Christ God destroyed death, sin and the Devil and brought new life - new creation - to all who believe. This is good news for whatever our struggle may be.

Yet at this point we could still just be telling yet another philosophical perspective on life. Who's to say this story is any better than any other?

This is where Luke's artistry as an author comes in. He ties this story structurally to the story of the disciples on their way to Emmaus. In the end, the Ethiopian plays the role of the disciples and Philip the role of the Risen Christ. When we are led by the Spirit to connect our story and the stories of those around us to the story of Jesus Christ, we are acting as Christ. Thus we have power and authority far beyond that which any other story or philosophy can muster. We have the power of the living God active in us and with us.

Therefore, evangelism is a natural part of life - occurring in our typical, natural environments. It is primarily made up of helping people connect their story to Jesus from the resurrection perspective. And when we go, we go as Christ.

That's the gist of the sermon... what do you think?

:: Matt 5/21/2003 12:32:00 AM :: permalink :: comments (0) ::
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A New Kind of Christian

I just wrapped up reading Brian McLaren's A New Kind of Christian. The dialogue format is classic. From time to time Neo comes off sounding like Socrates in Plato's dialogues: driving the conversation in the direction he wants through the issues and questions he raises. And while it is clear that McLaren has engaged in conversations of the sort reported in A New Kind of Christian, we should not take "Dan" to be more "Brian" than "Neo" may be.

Throughout the book, I could empathize with both main characters, but somehow I identified more with Neo. I don't know if I went through a "modern to postmodern transition," but somehow I made the transition from a more rigid "conservative evangelical rationalism" to something closer to McLaren's "New Kind of Christian" beginning sometime early in college and continuing to the present day.

As I found myself resonating with Neo's perspective, McLaren pushed me to take my philosophical perspectives one step further. Sometimes this evoked a statement such as "I never thought that this was a conclusion we could draw from that. Nonetheless, it makes sense." Other times I was surprised to find that McLaren had stated more succinctly something I had labored to come up with myself. And I thought I had come up something new!

In the chapter entitled "French Fries and the Kingdom of God," McLaren gave voice to my uneasiness with our current practice of evangelism.

[Dan asked,] "Isn't there a time when friendship evangelism has to move on to the evangelism?"

[Neo answered,] "Pardon me, Daniel, but I am not too fond of that expression, 'friendship evangelism.' It can prostitute friendship, which in my mind then invalidates the evangelism. If I'm going to pretend to be somebody's friend just so I can proselytize them, well, I might as well be selling soap. No, it's worse than that. At least when I'm selling soap, I'm not degrading the soap by exploiting the friendship. I can't tell you how much that term bothers me."

"Ok, I see your point. But Neo, won't a new kind of Christian be concerned about sharing the gospel?" I asked.

(Page 104)

Neo answers the question by telling a story. His answer is yes, ultimately. But he redefines what it means to "share the gospel."

The Gospel (can we just say "good news", for Christ's sake?) is Jesus Christ. The Good News is "The Kingdom of God is at hand. The Kingdom of the Heavens is available." When we say that the Good News is Jesus Christ we are no longer limited to an evangelism that merely changes someone's philosophy. It will do that. But evangelism is being Jesus Christ. As we continue as students of Jesus Christ we become more like him, and as we become more like him we are, in effect, the continuing presence of Christ in the world through the Holy Spirit. By grace we are transformed into people who look like Jesus and act like Jesus.

When this happens, we evangelize without even realizing it. We make friends with people because they are worth something to us, not because they are an evangelistic target. We go places where the good news is not known because it is such good news that we want everyone to have it - not to make them like us, but to give them a chance to have the kind of life that God has. And we end up "evangelizing" Christians as well because we engage with them from the perspective of good news.

New kind of Christian, old kind of Christian - whatever! I just want to be like Jesus.

:: Matt 5/19/2003 08:03:00 PM :: permalink :: comments (0) ::
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A Church That's Just Full of Hot Air

A UK company is promoting the Inflatable Church as a venue for weddings and other special events. Nuts, ain't it?

:: Matt 5/17/2003 05:36:00 PM :: permalink :: comments (0) ::
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Joel 2:31

North America was treated to a beautiful lunar eclipse tonight. Since it was cloudy over Chicago tonight, we drove out toward DeKalb where it had cleared off. It's always more fun to look at the sky when you have a PhD. student in Astronomy along with you. He pointed out some of my favorite constellations. We work well as a pair. He can point out the constellations, and I can tell him the mythology behind them (well, some of them, at least).

This was the first time I've seen a total lunar eclipse, I think. It's pretty impressive when the moon turns totally black and then suddenly becomes reddish-brown.

:: Matt 5/15/2003 11:53:00 PM :: permalink :: comments (0) ::
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The Matrix Has You

Awesome fight scenes. There's a lot of messing with your head. Go see it.

:: Matt 5/15/2003 01:54:00 AM :: permalink :: comments (0) ::
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Suburban Wildlife

Monday I looked out my window and saw a Great Blue Heron wading in "Lake Soon-Be-Gone" in the field behind our building. For all the camping I've done, this is the first time I saw one up close - really close. I took some pictures of it, and discovered I really ought to have used a telephoto lens or something. They turned out all right, just not spectacular.

Lake Soon-Be-Gone, for those who don't know, shows up every time it rains in the field behind our building. It usually recedes within a day or two (depending on how saturated the ground is). Which makes it all the more surprising that the heron came up with a fish while I watched. How did a 6-inch long fish get in a lake that wasn't there two days ago?

:: Matt 5/14/2003 07:11:00 PM :: permalink :: comments (0) ::
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...and miles to go before we sleep

My 1998 Pontiac Grand Prix just rolled over 90K miles. That's just 2,746 miles since I bought it in January. It's been almost exactly 4 months.



[This isn't my car, but it's a photo of the same model. Mine's green.]

Click here for a review of the various '98 Grand Prix models.

:: Matt 5/14/2003 06:55:00 PM :: permalink :: comments (0) ::
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Update on Northbrook

The GlenBrook hazing incident made CNN again today when the school board announced 10-day suspensions for around 30 students. They are recommending expulsion for these students as well. No prom, no graduation, no extracurriculars, no school. They'll have to graduate from an "alternative school," one without as nearly a sterling reputation as GlenBrook North. So, of course, one of the parents of the suspended students is suing the school.

Criminal charges are still pending.

I don't know why this whole thing makes me so mad. It just does. I am a bit befuddled as to why some people think that these girls should get away with no tarnish on their academic reputations. Please explain this to me, if you're one of them.

:: Matt 5/13/2003 12:33:00 AM :: permalink :: comments (0) ::
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Its a small world after all...

I've had a "small-world" experience twice in as many days. In the first one, I discovered that one of the sopranos in the church choir was at UIUC during the time I was, and worked across the street from me. Not only that, but she knew two people I worked with really well. It's really amazing how you can be two blocks from someone for 7 years and never meet them.

Then again today, a guy came to church with his mom wearing an Illini shirt. I talked to him after the service, and he knows some of my friends from Koin. Go figure.

Anyone else out there with University of Illinois connections that I don't know about? Step right up and comment below!

:: Matt 5/11/2003 10:15:00 PM :: permalink :: comments (0) ::
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Happy Mother's Day, Mom!

If you see this, go down to the place that says "comment" and, well, comment!

Sorry I couldn't make it down this year...

:: Matt 5/11/2003 09:57:00 PM :: permalink :: comments (0) ::
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Did you know...

...that PepsiCola is an anagram for "Episcopal"?

That's really funny.

While you're at it, check out IBM's purchase of The Protestant Episcopal Church of America. (grin)

:: Matt 5/10/2003 09:53:00 PM :: permalink :: comments (0) ::
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...and they wonder why U of I students party a lot...

By now most of you reading from the USA have probably heard about the rediculous powder-puff football-game-turned-drunken-hazing incident that happened in Northbrook over the weekend. That some parents supplied at least a significant portion of the contraband makes me sick. And then all of the "we're not the ghetto" sorts of comments coming from the "adults" over the news.

The blame game has begun. That the perpetrators are going to be in trouble with the law seems to be a given. But then the young adults (that is what they are, darn it) are left out of the picture completely as the village accuses the county forest preserve police of mishandling the incident, the media and the school administrators blame the parents, and commentators blame the economics and their correlative time restraints of double-income affluence.

I am continually bothered by the suburban affluence all around me. Living among some of the most affluent Western Suburbs while going to Seminary is not a good mix. How can we say that we are concerned for the poor when we don't let them live anywhere near us? There is a pervasive arrogance around here that I didn't see growing up in central Illinois. Despite protestations to the contrary, the "health and wealth" (may I add "youth"?) gospel is part of our suburban backdrop. "We have a right to our wealth," they say.

But then it doesn't stop there. People around here can get "DWB'd." In case you haven't heard, that's being pulled over for "Driving While Black." Or Hispanic. Or, for that matter, when driving a car that sticks out for being older and in worse shape than the others on the road. Some communities pride themselves on being so popular that you basically have to know someone moving out of town to purchase a house in town. Of course, that reduces the possibility of undesirables joining your "quiet, family-oriented community."

So I begin to ask myself: with all my accumulated anger, how do I minister in this context?

Moving at the end of the month will not make it go away. I go to minister among students at the University of Illinois. The overwhelming majority of them come from the Chicago suburbs. Of course those whom I know, I love. It's all the rest of my neighbors that test my discipleship.

:: Matt 5/09/2003 11:45:00 PM :: permalink :: comments (0) ::
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Evanescence at It Again

Evanescence made a statement through Billboard and Reuters regarding the controversy stirred up a few weeks ago over their status as Christians.

Ben Moody, the lead guitarist and songwriter emphasizes that they have only said that they aren't a Christian band, not that they aren't Christians. This comes after they declared that "We have no spiritual affiliation with this music."

Christian heads are spinning all over the 'net over this one. It's kinda interesting to watch.

I wonder if Evanescence's band members' heads aren't spinning with the whole going Platinum thing. Moody seems to be defending their status as Christians, but does not want to be classified as a Christian band for reasons as inscrutable as their polysyllabic name selection.

I hope that whatever their band's status is, that faith in Christ will be at the root of all they do - whether writing songs or just living life.

:: Matt 5/08/2003 09:06:00 PM :: permalink :: comments (0) ::
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News From Baghdad

Salem Pax posted to "Where is Raed?" yesterday via a friend. It's kinda amazing to read abou this whole thing from his perspective. I wonder what we've gotten ourselves into...

:: Matt 5/08/2003 07:48:00 PM :: permalink :: comments (0) ::
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Break From Blogging

I had a break from blogging the last few days because my nausea (reported earlier) was keeping my activity limited to the basics of reading for class and reclining on the couch trying to feel better. A diet of bread and soda crackers has worn itself thin.

I am pleased to report that I am feeling much better (for the moment, at least) and I am reenergized by a meal tonight that included some protein. I'm still taking it easy, though. Pray for my complete recovery.

:: Matt 5/08/2003 07:23:00 PM :: permalink :: comments (0) ::
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Raising [One At] The Bar

I saw an intriguing Relevant Magazine article over the weekend. "God at the Pub" by Jeff Conkin discusses how a group of Roman Catholic priests are bringing Jesus Christ to their local taverns.

I posted a brief comment thanking the author for the inspiration to actually go out and do what I've been talking about doing for a couple of years now. I have seen several comments respecting the "stumbling block" theology to which I would like to respond here.

We have to start with the incarnation of Jesus Christ. The incarnation alone will give the "stumbling block" theology its proper perspective. When God came to earth in Jesus Christ, the "holy" entered the "profane." Jesus lived amidst sin and among sinners his entire earthly life. The expectation of the day was that when something holy touched something impure, the holy thing was profaned (made "unclean") by the contact. "Righteous" people would not touch anything or anyone remotely unclean for fear of contamination.

But then the strangest thing happened: Instead of being profaned by his contact with the unholy people around him, Jesus began to make them holy. He touched people no one else would touch. He took righteousness to a place where no one had ever seen it before. And somehow, in doing that, he didn't come off looking like a stiff. Somehow I don't think that the tax collectors and "sinners" would have liked him nearly so much if he had sat at dinner with them looking embarassed and detached the entire time - embarassed by their bad jokes and detached from their lives.

But then an awful thing happened: The righteous, holy people (along with other un-righteous types) killed Jesus. His holiness and righteousness were overcome by the sin of the world and the sin in the world. Or were they?

Even death - the most poisonous and insidious aspect to people's sinfulness - could not destroy Jesus' holiness and righteousness. Yes, the world's sinfulness destroyed Jesus Christ. But the story didn't end there. God raised Jesus Christ from the dead - proving once and for all that holiness and righteousnes trump sin, evil, and death.

So when we go to a bar, we go in the strength of Christ. We enter a pub in his righteousness and holiness. We do not stand in our own strength.

Is going to a bar to do evangelism dangerous? Yes. Of course!!! Jesus' mission to earth was so dangerous that it got him killed. Why would ours be any different?

:: Matt 5/05/2003 03:25:00 PM :: permalink :: comments (0) ::
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Text Interaction "Paper"

Ok, so I just read Growing Up Digital by Don Tapscott for a class. It's kinda cute. It was copyrighted in 1998, which means it's really stinking dated. He makes a lot of the whole anti-internet media frenzy going on at the time. He kinda laughs it off. I guess that's what everyone (well almost everyone) else did, too. Maybe I'm living under a rock but I haven't heard nearly so much fearmongering and grousing about the negatives of the internet in a few years. And we've all happily been overrun by porn and been sucked into the corporate borg. Yeah.

Did anyone check out his website? Kinda text-driven boring. Like this site isn't text driven. So shoot me. It still looks better than his. Anyhow, very much late-90s boring design. Did I say boring twice there? Oh, well. It held my interest for all of about 2 minutes - and that was only because I was trying to give it an unbiased review.

Interact with the text: ok. The 'net has changed our entire way of thinking. E-mail puts us on a first name basis with just about everyone in the world, including distant relatives of Nigerian dictators with loads of cash. Hierarchies don't make any sense to us. "Have and have-not" makes sense to the extent that it is "can and can-not." Climbing the corporate ladder? Nah...

This has implications for how we look at church. Neither the "bottom up" hierarchy of our evangelical-protestant-congregational-democratic churches nor the top-down of some of our other independent-evangelical-pastor-driven churches and the Episcopal structures of the RCC and Orthodox make sense in the same way they once did. We're more ecumenical locally, less ecumenical structurally. We have gained a local focus and a global voice in an inter-networked conversation. Perhaps it is fitting that our structural models of church can't be mapped out on paper anymore. They have to be modeled on computer in some sort of dynamic, 3D, morphable molecular structure.

I think a lot of the naïvté we all originally had about the technological panacea has been shattered. That .com bubble burst hard. I don't know how much the "struggling, sluggish American economy" will continue to affect our technological revolution. I think it was good that the tech sector crashed. A lot of it was "stupidity darwinism." People are going to have to come up with more creative ideas built on more solid bases than before. And that's just fine.

On another front, it was interesting to read about what people were saying about me when I was graduating high school as a computer geek. I spent the next four years during college teaching a lot of my former high school teachers how to use various aspects of computers and information technology. The "generation lap" was bad in 1997. It's not so bad now. There's still a long way to go on that front, but it's not the crazy-divided thing it was.

How's that for interaction?

:: Matt 5/03/2003 03:31:00 PM :: permalink :: comments (0) ::
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Whatever bug this is that I've got, it's annoying. I'm living on a diet of tossed salad (no dressing) and crackers. Yum.

:: Matt 5/03/2003 12:04:00 AM :: permalink :: comments (0) ::
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There are 10 types of people in the world

Those who will be at least mildly intrigued by this site,

And those who are wondering what the other 8 types are.

Link via David Hopkins and Dan Hughes

:: Matt 5/01/2003 11:37:00 PM :: permalink :: comments (0) ::
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Postmodern Celtic Baptists

(Link via Stephen Shields at Faithmaps)

Check it out!

So it looks like I'm not the only oddball who likes the liturgical mode yet still remains a Baptist at some level...

:: Matt 5/01/2003 11:02:00 PM :: permalink :: comments (0) ::
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So somehow the template thing just worked... I just added Phuture. Great site discussing a whole lot of the "emerging church" stuff. These are the folks who cooked up Ignition, which I mentioned a while back. I did end up buying the full version - it's really good.

:: Matt 5/01/2003 10:48:00 PM :: permalink :: comments (0) ::
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This just sucks: this is the third day this week that I've had some sort of nausea and headache in the evening. I guess I'd better start tracking what I eat or something. I thought I had it figured out - a bad gallon of milk - but, obviously, that's not it. No vomiting, just a headache and upset stomach. Sunday night, Monday night, and tonight don't have much in common as far as what I've eaten.

What the heck is going on?!?

:: Matt 5/01/2003 10:43:00 PM :: permalink :: comments (0) ::
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