Three years ago, Kelly and I took a two-week Survey of the Old Testament class. What we didn’t realize before we stepped in to the classroom was that we were headed for a radical transformation of our faith. We both considered ourselves evangelical Christians and had beliefs similar to most American evangelicals.

There were many things we learned during those two weeks with Dr. Richard Pratt, but the one thing that stuck with us the most was how different his view on the final outcome of the world is and therefore our role as citizens of the world.

This video of N.T. Wright’s views seems to jive with what Dr. Pratt said that summer. You’ll have to watch it for yourself.

ABC ran a story on college students and spirituality. In case you missed the story when it aired on Good Morning America on Wednesday (12/6), you can check it out here: http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=1375842&page=1

I used to think that college students were just unspiritual, because they didn’t all believe the exact same things I do. But the contemporary culture of our day, a postmodern world, is very open to different kinds of religious experiences. Perhaps the right way to talk to college students about Christ today isn’t what it was before. Looking at a bunch of empirical data to come to a universal absolute systemized worldview worked well before, but there is a different starting point today.

I think the biggest error we can assume today is that if people don’t respond to our methods that they are bad, especially if they worked before. We tell ourselves that we haven’t changed but they have, so it’s their fault. Yet I believe there is a great opportunity today to get beneath mere intellectual faith and share our real life experience with Christ. We need to share what Christ really means to our heart, not just a bunch of propositions.

I believe that if Christians stop resenting the culture and begin understanding it, we will make a big impact on society and how the culture is shaped during the next hundred years. But my hope is mixed with hopelessness. It seems like so many of us are resistant (myself included for many years) to framing our beliefs in a new world. Brothers and sisters, if we do not begin redeeming the culture, our faith will continue to become irrelevant and effectually disappear. And by the way, redeeming the culture does not mean making it modern again.

I welcome comments, and this will not be the last post on this subject.

“Inspired by the world’s obsession and devotion to the iPod, iBelieve is a replacement lanyard for your iPod Shuffle. It is a social commentary on the fastest growing religion in the world. And it only costs $12.95.”

I guess if you want to mark yourself as a Christian, this will do it. Although, along the way, you might want to do it actively too. If you want to show them what you believe, try:

• acts of service to show your concern
• actively listening to understand
• not thinking of yourself more highly than you ought, but in humility
• show respect to others, despite differences

Being generous to others may be a greater social commentary than a plastic cap that symbolizes that I’m significant because I’m on a winning team and you aren’t. Food for thought.

Today I was watching Forest Gump on TV. I don’t have to go in to much detail about how popular this movie was and still is. First of all, Tom Hanks is probably one of the best, most-versatile actors today. He has been successful in many different roles, because it is so easy to empathize with him. I think it is because he incarnates the roles he plays and lets the emotion of the character come out. But, this is the topic of a different post.

As I watched Forest Gump I thought about what makes this movie so appealing. Is it the lovable characters? Is it the fun storyline? Is it the themes of hope amidst trials? While I don’t think there is one answer for the success of this movie, one thing stands out to me. Gump and Jenny traverse the decades of American history and culture through very different paths. All of us can relate to how either Gump or Jenny moved through a rapidly changing culture.

It is interesting how Gump is woven into US history. While a tide of cultural and political changes crash down, he simply stands tall and walks through it somewhat oblivious to what’s going on around him. Perhaps he is the symbol of modernism. His saving grace is that while those around him are swiftly changing, he just forges ahead with a head full of facts and simple truth. Gump is the conservative.

If Forest is modernism, Jenny is a symbol of postmodernism. She’s swept away by the emerging culture, so much so that she loses her identity amidst the crowd. She has no reference point to her life, because everything is relative to her. Jenny finds pleasure, but only with pain right beside it. Jenny is the liberal.

Forest loves Jenny, but doesn’t know how to win her to himself. Every time Forest tries to rescue her from the recklessness of her life, their relationship is put in turmoil and Jenny runs away from him and Forest walks away alone and disoriented. She can’t love a man who won’t let her live passionately. It’s not until Jenny is much older and the mother of young Forest that she realizes that she has messed her life up and loves him too, but not long after that she dies.

Forest and Jenny are opposites. Forest is the stable, factual thinker who doesn’t care about the future, only the past and present. Jenny is the progressive, emotional dreamer. All she cares about is what suits her future fancy. Forest is the left-brain conservative and Jenny is the right-brain liberal.

In the beginning of the story Forest falls in love with Jenny, because she is kind to him while everyone else dismisses him as different. In the end Jenny falls in love with Forest, because he is generous to her despite the mess she made of her life. The two need each other. Without Jenny he is empty, cold and alone. Without Forest, she is on the edge of danger and despair. This, I believe, is why people like this movie so much. It’s the story of two different people in a world in the midst of two vastly different ideologies.

The story of Forest Gump and Jenny. In our hearts we desperately want the two together. But is there hope for the modern and the post-modern to marry? The answer this movie gives is yes, but only through a generous, persevering love and pain and sorrow.

I found these videos at Off The Map. I have found them challenging and encouraging.

A New Kind of Christian

Brian McLaren explains the paradigm shift that we are going through as we transition from the modern to the post-modern eras. He shares his perspective on what this looks like and implications for the church. His revolutionary book, A New Kind of Christian: A Tale of Two Friends on a Spiritual Journey is a must read for pastors and leaders who are attempting to understand this paradigm shift.

• A New Kind of Christian (1)
• A New Kind of Christian (2)

Missional Series

Brian McLaren shares his thoughts at a live Off The Map event on new approaches and paradigms about being a missional Christian.

• Evangelism as Confrontation
• Evangelism as Connection
• Become a Missional Christian

More McLaren [mp3s]

• at Cedar Ridge

This is an interesting encyclopedia article on the Emerging Church

Brian McLaren is one of the leaders of the church in the emerging post-modern world.