THINK DIFFERENTLY

List-O-Mania V.4

Biggest surprise: Biggest surprise was the level of traffic BeDeviant.com is seeing! A few posts really threw us over the top (all election and Obama-related, oddly enough): “Is Obama the First Postmodern President?” and, “Can You Vote for Obama?” Great discussion on both posts. I’ll even be using some of the comments in my sermon this week at Immersion!

Favorite new song: I’ve had LCD Soundsystem’s “Someone Great” on repeat for the past week (link opens in iTunes). I feel like you should do everything in robot-like fashion when you listen to this song. It’s great.

Seminary: I’m gutting out the last few weeks of my classes. Greek is really starting to take a turn for the worse. Not grade-wise, comprehension-wise. I know it’s important for me to learn this ancient language, but sheesh! Beef jerky isn’t as dry as this class is at times. Also trying to figure out how to graduate by Fall 2009. My advisors think I’m insane.

Most excited about: Seeing where this blog goes. It’s fast becoming a favorite hobby of mine and one of my blogs even won an award! I’m excited about the future of this blog because of the awesome content you all provide. Insightful comments, joining in the election liveblogging discussion, and telling your friends about BeDeviant.com - this couldn’t happen without you. The Church is in a massive (and exciting) change right now and I think platforms like this will help usher in a new direction. Decentralization baby!

Favorite new Twitter-er: There’s two this week: @BeImmersed and @d_eickelberg. Immersion is the ministry I’m on staff with and we just hooked up the Twitter to the Immersion blog. Follow along and read some amazing posts by some amazing young adults who have something to say. Dave (@d_eickelberg) just started up a great blog “Someone Has To Say It”. And he is. Follow him on Twitter and give his blog a little love.

Are you a list person? Type A, perhaps? If you like things organized in list-like fashion, check out the List-O-Mania archives for more listed commentary on culture, theology, and life.

Technorati Tags: #iowawebawards, 2008 Election, Barack Obama, Bethel Seminary, Immersion, Iowa Web Awards, List-O-Mania, Postmodern, Twitter

Webcasting Immersion Sermon Live!

Check back here at 8:20pm CST and hopefully you should see a live sermon by yours truly!

It actually worked! If you tuned in from 8:20-9:05pm CST, you would have seen a live broadcast of my sermon for Immersion! Check back next Thursday, October 9th to catch the latest in our new series, “What Does the Bible Really Say About…” Next week: Sex.

Oh yeah, it’s also the 10/10 Challenge!

Technorati Tags: Immersion

They’re All Going To Laugh At You!

I’d like to officially invite all of you to the “Immersion 10/10 Challenge”.

For those who don’t know, I’m on staff with Immersion (link opens in iTunes) - a 20s and 30s ministry in West Des Moines, IA. We meet on Thursday nights at Lutheran Church of Hope. 7:37pm. Worship Center.

At any rate, next week we’re asking everyone to bring 10 people to the 10/9 service. (We’re calling it 10/10 because on the Jewish calendar, the next day begins at sundown. Booyah!)

I’d like you to be one of my 10. Would you consider coming? Besides if you don’t, that little boy will seriously come laugh at you. Consider yourself warned.

Technorati Tags: Evangelism, Immersion

An Interesting Perspective On Church.

The following is an excerpt from a Rob Bell interview I found on Neue Ministry’s website. You can find the full interview here, but take a read of this snippet when Rob talks about the difference between “going to” church and “being” the church:

“On Sundays at Mars Hill, we would simply say this is just a gathering of the church, or churches. We gather throughout all the days of the week as communities, but we actually journey together in smaller networks of people. So, if you come here on Sunday, you come for an hour and a half for whatever teaching and singing, and get some information, but please don’t say you’re a part of this church. You went to a service this church put on. So to me, God can use all these different ways. The issue is whether we’re honest about what things are, and we call them what they are, and we don’t place expectations on things that can’t deliver.”

This is something that I try and breathe into reality at Immersion, the ministry that I help lead. We make a mistake in the church when we say, “I’ve gone to church today” without realizing that that identity as the church follows us into our everyday lives - whether we like it or not.

Have you noticed this? This awareness of a few pockets of people that what we have classified as “church” for so long has been sorely misguided.

Is this just a generational thing? Is this understanding just for a younger generation? What do you think? Let us know in the comments.

Technorati Tags: Christianity, Church, Immersion, Neue Ministry, Rob Bell