Hacking Christianity

Progressive NOT Permissive Church

Sigh. I know it is satire and humor, but I get pretty annoyed by the tired "Progressive" is a code word for "morally lax and permissive church" meme.

For instance, this episode is up for an Emmy (What? They have regional Emmys? Really?) from the Steve and Kathy Gray show (background here)

Here's the basic sentiments about what "Progressive" means from the video:

We don't worry about God, we worry about you!
We'll make the religion to meet your needs.
It's never your fault.
We'll change things just for you.
It's all about you.
It's about feeling good about you.
Marijuana, violent video games are cool

See, I don't get this meme. Practically every one of those things could be leveled at megachurches like Osteen's Lakewood Church or Warren's Saddleback church who craft worship to be less language-offensive, less liturgical, less depth of theology so that they meet the felt needs of the congregation in a surface way.

In response to the above:

Progressive churches deal with questions about whether God really worries about the things we think God worries about.
Progressive churches critique church tradition and expressions to see how it can better meet the needs of people long kept on the sidelines of the church.
Progressive churches emphasize societal responsibility alongside personal responsibility for fault.
Progressive churches realize care for individuals may challenge sacrosanct issues via inclusive language.
Progressive churches don't do Halo tournaments or "end justifies the means" ministries.

I just don't get it.

The only thing I can think of is that "Progressive" is code for "sexual permissiveness" regarding gay issues and abortion. That's all I've got.

Funny video? Yeah, sure. Ridiculous caricature of Progressivism? Absolutely. But caricatures should over-emphasize a true feature of a topic and I just don't see this outside of sexual permissiveness. So is that all it is about?

Someone please tell me how all these accusations come from anything other than moral permisiveness on sexual issues and I would love to have the conversation.

Thoughts?

What if Worship was like an NBA game?

Thoughts?

(h/t Ruach mailing list)

Friends don't let friends babble

You know the ones. Those people who when you ask to pray, you get a whole lot more in return: reams of churchy-talk and runs of "we just want to thank you for ____." It has a name, apparently, as seen in the video below. I know this makes light of Tourette's syndrome but it has an interesting point: does dipping into hyper-religious speak distract from your goal of embodying Christ? Check it out:

(h/t Chad Holtz's facebook)

Thoughts?

Fountain Filled with Blood Atonement

This video merited 34 comments in an hour on facebook from a dozen different churchworkers (clergy and laity). Lemme know what you think:

Key gut-check moments for me were the completely unexpected 0:38, and I was open-mouthed at 3:44 (though it did look like someone saw Carrie too much...h/t JAA). The Rockettes at 3:06 almost made up for it though.

Personally, I think videos like this are good in that they depict the viscerally disturbing aspects of blood atonement and are good conversation starters on atonement theories. It's like Mel Gibson's The Passion...I think that movie did more for discussion of alternate atonement theories than it probably intended! No understanding of atonement is complete or perfect and I think discussion of them is at once challenging but helpful in the long run.

Thoughts on the video?

Who is gonna fix this mess? [video]

At summer camp, our district superintendent played this video about a cinematographer whose questions about God and the human condition play out in a powerful way. It's titled "A Thousand Questions" and asks "who will clean up the mess humanity finds itself in?"

Yes, it's 10 minutes long. Yes, it's worth your time.

So THAT's How Megachurches Roll...

"Stuff Christians Like" blogger Jon Acuff points us this morning to a parody video of Sunday Mornings at a megachurch. I'm glad to be in on their secret strategy and I hope Acuff doesn't end up with concrete shoes for revealing their secrets.

As always, self-deprecating humor is often a good hack!

ProBlogger on Church and Social Media [video]

Problogger Darren Rowse is a blogger extraordinaire who actually got his start writing a religious blog, being involved in a religious chatroom and forming virtual community there. That's close to how I got my start in the digital world too, running my own webforum for 5 years which predated my seminary entrance. Cool!

Anywho, Darren made an appearance digitally at the TransFORM conference (an Emerging Church event) and has a LOT to say about churches and social media and the value of online community. Check it out:

(ht/ Tall Skinny Kiwi)

What really is the Gospel? [video]

Rob Bell of Nooma fame has this great video that deconstructs what we mean by the Gospel and what is truly compelling and unique aspect of the Christian gospel...and it ain't a virgin birth or resurrection, people! (h/t Waving or Drowning)

Thoughts?

A New Law

I'm about two years late to the Derek Webb party, but I'm really digging this video set to his song "A New Law." Using it for bible study tonight to talk about the Hebrews desire to return to slavery. Hope you like it:

'Embrace Life' Seatbelt Ad

Great ad promoting seatbelt use.

Make your Last Supper one that will last.

God will never give you up...

Christian TV lays the smack-down on rickrolling.

Hilarious!

Don't Vote for Casket [consumerism+church]

Sigh. It's a shame when a church uses their resources to promote (a) consumerism and (b) try to win money from corporations. But the worst part? It's actually really funny.

Doritos has a competition to see who can shoot the best video and have it be aired in the Super Bowl. Among the top six (out of 4,000 entries) is this one entitled "Casket" (h/t The Christian Post)

Hilarious, right? The thing is...it was made by a church. A mega-church called Mosaic, to be exact, with Wal-mart church campuses in several cities. So they have the resources and probably some people with tech expertise to enter this type of competition. All well and good.

But I can't help but look at what it includes:

Gluttony to the point of swimming in it.
Desperate actions to get the "reward": a week off work
Deception and deceit to get the "reward"
Using the epitaph "It's a miracle" at the end in a disingenuous way
Promoting Consumerism to buy more fatty foods

I'm all about Christ of culture, but depicting a worship service that doesn't critique culture but instead celebrates its negative aspects (see above) isn't a good thing.

Again, the worst thing is that it is (a) hilarious (b) well-made and (c) might just get the top due to Christian support. And then what does that say about our church?

I can't help but wonder the same thing that some free-thinking websites wonder: if this was made by an atheist and not a church, wouldn't we call it sacrilegious? And if so, why don't we because of its source?

So, I'm not gonna vote for Casket. It's funny, the money could be used for good things, but like the guy in the casket in the video, the ends do not justify the means. And by not critiquing consumerism and obesity and deceptive tactics, indeed, celebrating those things, its success would do more than $1m worth of damage IMO.

Again, it was hilarious. And in that hilarity I worry for what its success means.

Thoughts?

Respect Your Elders [humor][video]

Honoring the spirit of the Fifth Commandment:

h/t Susan on Facebook.

Amateurs in the Institutional Church 1of2

I know that blog posts about the Church and online media/phenomenon don't get many replies here, but I post them anyways because that's an area I'm interested in.

So here's Internet theorist Clay Shirky (remember him from the What the Church can Learn from Wikipedia series?) talking about the the effect of amateurization and what institutions can do to respond to it...and *I* think it has parallels in the church. Check out the video and read specific quotes after the jump:

Here's a striking quote for me. Shirky is talking about the advance of online media options and interaction, but I think it parallels the church too:

When you open up new capability, then the average quality decreases. But that happened with the printing press. Prior to the printing press, the only written works which were obsessively copied were Plato, Aristotle, [hand]-copied by monks. When the printing press came along, the quality of the average book actually fell because now lots of people could be writers. So this is the absolutely normal pattern for new media....the way you get out of that is if the increase in abundance is so enormous that the absolute amount of good stuff increases.

[Thus I believe] we are living through the largest increase in expressive capability in the history of the human race.

In short, mass amateurization of an industry certainly reduces the quality of the industry (think blogger ethics v. journalism standards), but because it's en masse the amount of good stuff increases. So while any idiot with a keyboard can post something online, there are brilliant people who can now reflect online too. So while the overall quality of the written word has gone down in recent years thanks to txting, IM, and blogs...the sheer amount of good contributions have gone up...if you can wade through the garbage, that is!

I see elements of this in the Church today:

Institutional Church v. Dime-a-dozen church startups - The institutional church's membership levels have gone down, while non-denominational churches have popped up a hundredfold. These churches lack tradition, established avenues of accountability, and indeed some are just tax havens in Westboro, KS. So while institutional churches have decreased, I suspect the absolute amount of people experiencing the Christian tradition has increased.
Trained Clergy v. passionate local pastors - The number of seminary-trained professional clergy has gone down, while the number of local church pastors has gone up. Local church pastors may be gifted but don't have the full measure of church tradition and theological training under their belts. But while seminary-educated clergy has decreased, I suspect the absolute amount of people experiencing passionate pastoral leadership has increased.
Local Church Discipleship v. loosely affiliated groups - On a local-church level, attendance in traditional church discipleship structures has decreased, while impromptu and sideline ministry groups has increased. Outside of the general church structure are often groups of people that wouldn't call themselves a group but they are doing ministry and discipleship regardless. So while supervised, accountable discipleship has decreased, I suspect the absolute amount of people experiencing diverse reflections on their spiritual growth has increased.

In short, the Church is also reeling from the effect of mass amateurization. At the denominational, ecclesiastical, and local church level, the rising tide of "amateur" embodiments threatens the viability of the institutional church.

Thus the question lingers...

Will we go the way of the newspapers and struggle to survive in the face of a changing world that values ease of access above all else?
Or will we adapt and thrive, seeking out the best ways to use amateur input and shepherd the power and conviction through our difficulties?

More tomorrow; what are your thoughts today?

No Comment Whatsoever [video]

Title: Church sponsors book burning, includes bibles.

No comment...whatsoever.

Retro Nintendo + Jazz = Awesome

Here's 8-bit Nintendo retro goodness with jazz accompaniment (sax and keyboard, I believe).

(h/t Neatorama)

Church History in 4 minutes [video]

This post is dedicated to the seminarians entering month #2 of Church History and are freaking out a bit.

And the added bonus that it is to the tune of "We didn't Star the Fire" is pretty awesome.

(h/t Exploring Our Matrix...thanks Professor McGrath!)

Swine Flu Eucharistic Prayer [video]

I don't know whether to be horrified by taking cultural relevance waaaay too far or be inspired by the priest's creativity. Let's just say I cringed about only once...every 10 seconds.

Thoughts?

(h/t my friend Jim)

Sunday is for Star Wars [video]

Darth Vader does MC Hammer. Life is good.

(h/t @kevinhendricks)

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